Cher Tickets

How does one encapsulate the career of Cher? She's released 27 solo studio albums, selling over 100 million records worldwide. She’s the only artist to have had a number one single on a Billboard chart for six consecutive decades. She’s one of 18 people in the world to have achieved an EGOT (that is, winning an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony). She’s rightfully earned the title of the "Goddess of Pop". She’s been a fashion icon for 60 years, and she’s the mother of all gay icons. Here’s the easiest way to put it: Cher is pop music, and pop music is Cher.

Born Cherilyn Sarkasian in El Centro, California in 1946, Cher’s childhood was marked by a determination to be a star. In school performances, her beauty and her distinctive low voice wowed her peers, who were as sure as she was that she was going to do something great. She left school and moved to Los Angeles aged 16 in 1962, where she soon met songwriter Sonny Bono, who was working for Phil Spector at the time. Cher began appearing as a backing vocalist in Spector’s recordings, until he gave her the chance to record her first single, ‘Ringo, I Love You’, as Bonnie Jo Mason.

Cher and Bono started a relationship, and in 1964 started performing together as a duo under the name Caesar & Cleo. Cher signed to Imperial Records as a solo artist that year, and her cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘All I Really Want To Do’ became her first hit in 1965 – peaking at No.15 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Her debut album of the same name charted similarly. In 1965, Caesar & Cleo became Sonny & Cher, and released the single ‘I Got You Babe’ – which went on to become one of the most beloved folk-rock tracks of all time. It spent weeks at No.1 on the US and UK charts, and the duo became stars on both sides of the Atlantic.

Sonny & Cher continued releasing albums throughout the 1960s. Meanwhile, Cher released several solo albums, with top-charting singles including ‘Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)’ (her first million-seller), and ‘You Better Sit Down Kids’. After a few years in a career downturn, in 1971 Sonny & Cher began starring in the CBS variety show, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, to great success. 

Cher had her first solo No.1 single the same year with ‘Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves’, which established her as a solo icon and was later named by Billboard as “one of the 20th century’s greatest songs”. Further No.1s came with 1973’s ‘Half-Breed’ and 1974’s ‘Dark Lady’, which at the time made Cher the female artist with the most No.1s in US history. While Sonny & Cher continued releasing albums through the early 1970s, the couple divorced and ended their musical partnership in 1975. The same year, Cher debuted her solo television show, Cher, to critical acclaim.

After a few years of limited commercial success, Cher made a return with the disco album Take Me Home in 1979, which was certified Gold by the RIAA. The album yielded her first world tour as a solo artist, including a three-year Las Vegas residency. In 1982, Cher began a five-year hiatus from music during which she focused on her acting career. Her role alongside Meryl Streep in 1983’s Silkwood earned her an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe win for Best Supporting Actress. In 1985, she starred in a leading role in Mask, which was a critical and commercial success. She won her first Oscar for Best Actress for her 1987 starring role in Moonstruck.

The same year, she signed to Geffen Records and ended her hiatus with the platinum-selling album Cher, which produced a top-10 single in ‘I Found Someone’. Its follow-up, 1989’s Heart of Stone, was certified triple-platinum, and single ‘If I Could Turn Back Time’ became a worldwide hit. Her 1991 final Geffen album Love Hurts became a UK No.1 for six weeks.

Amid health issues, Cher’s career was relatively quiet through the 1990s, though in 1995 she released the covers album It’s A Man’s World and had a UK top-10 hit with single ‘One By One’. She burst back into the public eye with 1998 single ‘Believe’, from the album of the same name. The dance-pop tune became one of the biggest selling singles of all time, topping the charts in over 23 countries. At the age of 52, Cher became the oldest female artist to achieve a No.1 single in both the US and UK charts. The song was certified Quadruple Platinum by the RIAA, as was the accompanying album, and it won Cher’s first Grammy for Best Dance Recording. The ensuing sold-out world tour reached an audience of over 1.5 million. 

She followed this success up with the 2001 album Living Proof, including hit single ‘The Music’s No Good Without You’, and in 2002 she was presented with a Billboard Artist Achievement Award.  The same year, she began Living Proof: The Farewell Tour, which she billed as her final concert tour. It went on to become the most successful tour ever by a woman, and the NBC broadcast of the tour won Cher an Emmy.

In 2008, Cher took up a three-year Las Vegas residency, and in 2010 she starred in the musical Burlesque. In 2013, she released Closer to the Truth, her first studio album in over a decade, and in 2014 sold out the Dressed to Kill tour. In 2018, she released the ABBA covers album Dancing Queen, which debuted with her largest sales week since 1991. That year saw the premiere of The Cher Show, a jukebox musical based on her life, which received two Tony Awards. Cher received a Kennedy Center Honors award in December 2018.

In 2023, Cher released her first Christmas album, Christmas, featuring appearances from the likes of Stevie Wonder, Michael Bublé and Cyndi Lauper. On 1 December 2023, Cher will appear live for a one-off ‘In Conversation’ interview at Odeon Luxe, Leicester Square, London, in which she will discuss her new album and reflect on her storied career.