Cher, Cherilyn Sarkisian, was born on May 20th 1946 in California, USA. Cher began her rise to fame as a session singer in 1963 after building a close relationship with Sonny Bono who worked under music producer Phil Spector in Hollywood. She sang back-up on many records before becomming an established solo artists such as The Ronnettes "Be my Baby". She then went on to release two solo singles in 1964 under different pseudonyms Cherilyn and Bonnie Jo Mason. The signles did not have any severe impact on the record industry and did not at this stage thrust her into the limelight.
Before being known now as the world famous "Sonny and Cher" the pair were called Ceasar and Cleo. At just 19 Sonny and Cher released their first album in 1965 which contained the smash hit "I got you Babe". The duo then went on to release strings of singles that charted reasonably respectuflly and returned to the Billboard top ten with their song, The Beat Goes On. In the 60's the pair featured on many American TV shows to promote themselves and their music. Later in 1965 Cher released her first solo album and two more in consecutive years. They were reasonably well recieved in both sides of the Atlantic and were frequently produced by her friend and eventual lover Sonny Bono. Riding on the success of Chers solo ventures and the duos success, Sonny arranged for Cher to be in a few fimls but unfortunately bombed at the box office.
In the first half of the 70's, Sonny and Cher appeared in a range of own branded television shows on CBS. One of their shows "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour" was extremely popular and achieved 15 Emmy nominations across its run. In 1971 at age 25 Cher released another solo album entitled Gypsies, Tramps and Theives and a single of the same name reached number one on the Billboard 100 chart in America. Her next solo album Half Breed released in 1973 which certified Gold and also garnered another number one single. In 1974 she realesed another solo album called Dark Lady which was also the name of her thrid solo number one single. Cher then went on to win a Golden Globe for her performance in The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour but what followed was a bitter public divorce from Sonny Bono and their partnership both privately and professionally ended. Cher and Sonny went their seperate ways in the television industry but did reunite for their acclaimed comedy show but due to Cher's pregnancy she pulled the plug. Cher then later went on the marry musician Gregg Allman.
From the late 70's untill the 80's Cher relesed many solo attempts but they were misses in the music industry. Throughout the 80's Cher reinvented herself as a serious actress and went on to star in many films and television series. For her performance in the 1987 film Moonstruck she won herself the Academy Award For Best actress, Golden Globe and Peoples choice award. She aslo had many other nominations for her performances in Mask and Silkwood. In her return to music after 5 years towards the end of the 80's she made three highly successful rock albums which showed her diversity as an artists. Her biggest hit of this period was "If I Could Turn Back Time" which charted successfully in many countries across the world.
In 1990 Cher starred in the film Mermaids which she also sung the son "The Shoop Shoop Song" for its soundtrack. She also released an album named Love Hurts which had more success in Europe than American with it being number one in the UK for 6 consecutive weeks. A cover album was released in the late 90's titled Love Can Build a Bridge which contained the Euopean hits "Walking in Memphis" and One by One. She again starred in numerous films and television but was struck with the death of Sonny Bono her ex husband in 1998.
From then on Cher relased her popular and critically successful album Believe which she won a grammy for and which has sold over 20 million copies worldwide. In 2000 Cher was awarded a Life Long contribution to music award from the World Music Awards embarked on her farewll tour and signed on to a residency in Las Vegas where she performed 200 shows over 3 years. Recently she has just finished her residency and starred in the film Burlesque and is planning an album comback.
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