“The Memoirs of Cher”, an ode to the glamor and solitude of show business

Throughout her life, she captured America’s attention with her raspy voice, her unexpected Oscar win and her scathing style knowingly shaped by Bob Mackie. Exactly six decades after her debut alongside Sonny Bono – who made her leave high school and her small Californian town for the spotlight of Los Angeles – Cher tells her story for the first time in an event book.

The iconic singer with Armenian roots uncompromisingly shares the anecdotes that made up her unhappy childhood and her past setbacks. In 430 pages, she expands on her moods as a novice and her doubts as an often misunderstood artist in a first volume revealing an era where women were always forced to explain their personal choices on television sets. . While waiting for the second opus – for which no date has yet been announced – and before leafing through the first, let’s take a look at its latest performances in 2024.

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Last October, Cher was found as the comeback star at the Victoria Secret Fashion show, wearing a sheer, shimmering mesh top that showed off her black lace bra and leather parachute pants. One example among others of her ability to mix boldness and timeless glamour, even at 78 years old. That evening, she performed two of her hits Strong Enough et Believetransforming the podium into a concert hall for fashion snobs.

Tender age

Then in November, the glittering popess announced the release of a new album, as pop as the previous ones according to the first rumors circulating in the American editorial offices as revealed by the magazine Billboard. Cher has made no secret that she would give anything to be 60 again, admitting in passing that she enjoys the company of younger people, because she is not yet ready to accept her age.

A reflection which is in reality the reflection of a career filled with tumult and glitter. The fact remains that Cher has forged a real saga, which would require more than two volumes to tell it in detail.

Daughter of John, an Armenian-American truck driver addicted to drugs and gambling, Cheryl Sarkissian was born on May 20, 1946 in El Centro, California. Her mother, Georgia Holt, a former model and actress, had multiple ancestry: Irish, English, German and Cherokee. She sometimes takes her daughter to the cinema and the theater. Very quickly, little Cheryl had a crazy desire to get on the stage too. And to think bigger. “I promised myself that one day I would be rich and that I would take care of all my family,” she writes in this first volume retracing her life. Her springboard will be Sonny Bono whom she meets in a Hollywood café where the young Cheryl had moved at the age of 16 to become an actress. Sonny, whose real name is Salvatore Bono, then artistic director, invited him to participate in the choirs in the studio of the songwriter Phil Spector.

The Golden Age Cher-Sonny Bono

Very quickly detecting his talent, he had him record his first 45 rpm under his real first name, a song written by him and which he entitled Dream Baby. The record was released by Gold Star in the spring of 1964. Sonny wrote more and more for his protégé, who became Cher, and decided to record a few songs with her before releasing their first joint album, which was more widely distributed. This is how the most influential hippie duo of the sixties was born. Their golden age. The duo married and the rise began without the slightest fall for Cher even after her divorce from Sonny in 1975 after 13 years of living together. The couple had a son named Chastity, who today became Chaz and one of the most recognized transgender actors in the profession.

The brunette star is reaping the awards, winning an actress award at Cannes, several Golden Globes and winning the Oscar for best actress for the film Moonlight in 1988, opposite Meryl Streep and Glenn Close. Cher also established herself as an icon of boho chic and extravagant fashion in the 1970s and 1980s, a time when her skimpy outfits caused a scandal. His last world tour, the Living Proof – Farewell Tour (2002-2005), is featured in the book Guinness des records as the highest earning for a female artist, a record since surpassed. She is also distinguished by her great activity as a philanthropist.

“No need to jump into the void… I’m leaving him!” »

As it would take columns of a newspaper to report the many spectacular facts that woven his existence, we have noted some of the most salient. We learn that Georgia Holt, pregnant with her daughter Cher, had decided to have an abortion… before changing her mind just before the operation. “It was his body, his life and his choice. But thank God she jumped off the operating table, otherwise I would not have been able to write these lines,” the singer writes. Further on, she gives another anecdote. While she borrows her father’s car without his knowledge, she hits another vehicle. The driver is none other than Warren Beatty. He then gets out of the car, looks at her and tells her that she is to die for, according to Cher, who continues: “Then, he takes me to his house, prepares me cheese and crackers, leans over me and m ‘kiss. » The singer also evokes, supreme confession, her breakup with Sonny. “I was dizzy with loneliness. I saw how easy it would be to climb over the edge of the balcony and simply disappear. For a few crazy minutes, I couldn’t imagine any other option. I did it five or six times,” she says. She then thinks of her loved ones and composes herself, concluding: “I don’t need to jump into the void. I can just leave him! »