Cshe is publishing the first part of her memoir this month. In this autobiography, the 78-year-old singer and actress of “The Beat Goes On” tells the story of her extraordinary life with verve and honesty. She obviously recounts her beginnings in music after her meeting in 1961 with the man who would become her husband, Salvatore Phillip Bono, known as Sonny.
Every Wednesday at 4 p.m.
Receive the cultural news of the week not to be missed as well as Surveys, decryptions, portraits, trends…
Merci !
Your registration has been taken into account with the email address:
To discover all our other newsletters, go here: MyAccount
By registering, you accept the general conditions of use and our confidentiality policy.
Sonny & Cher… timeless songs, cult television shows in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. Apparently, for a decade, a beautiful story of love and creation. Apparently, because as she writes in Cher : The Autobiography (Harper Collins), Sonny was in fact a crook who did not hesitate, she writes, to strip her of her copyright.
Control over royalties
“He took all my money. I said to myself: “We are husband and wife. Half of the things are his, the other half are mine”. It didn't occur to me that there was another way,” the star explained to New York Times who interviewed him about his book.
Sonny Bono, who was eleven years older than Cherilyn Sarkisian, founded the company Cher Enterprises. He owned 95% of it, and gave the remaining 5% to his lawyer. As for the singer, she could only work for Cher Entreprises. His naivety did not last. She divorced in 1975, fighting for custody of their child and over the couple's finances. An agreement was finalized in 1978. But, in 2022, things become complicated.
While Sonny, who had become an elected representative of the Republican Party, died of a skiing accident on January 5, 1998, his widow, Mary, wanted to stop paying royalties to Cher in the name of the so-called “right of termination” law. But the goddess of Pop intends to recover her royalties, so she counterattacks and wins.
New dispute
To discover
Kangaroo of the day
Answer
Mary Bono, herself a former Republican elected official, was ordered in May this year to pay Cher her 50% share. The move is in line with the terms of the former couple's 1978 divorce, which specified that Cher's share was permanent.
However, Mary Bono still does not agree. Back to court, then. A hearing took place this Monday, November 18 in Los Angeles and the lawyer for Sonny Bono's widow challenged Cher's access to copyright placed in escrow after June 30, 2022. The 1is July, Irving Azoff's Iconic Artists Group took over Cher's musical catalog. “She is not entitled to royalties that she does not own,” believes the Bonos’ lawyer. The judge's response is pending.
