Who can say no to a princess? Not Cher In any case. In 1966, Princess Margaret wanted to see the duo Sonny & Cher happen, and so that's what she got. In his memoirs Cher : The Memoirpublished this Tuesday, the artist talks about how his performance was “disastrous”. A real fiasco.
The younger sister of the reine Elizabeth II had been in Los Angeles at the time for “a series of charity events” with her husband, Lord Snowdon. “After reading everything about us in the English press, the princess invited us to perform at the Hollywood Palladium,” says Cher, then in a relationship with her stage companion Sonny Bonowho died in 1998. “It was a surprise to us, because the old guard had no idea who we were, or they thought we were very weird people,” the star continues.
“It was amazing how it wasn't our usual crowd,” she recalls. “The best thing that could happen was that we survived all of this.” » Both artists initially did not want to accept the royal offer, “but we couldn't say no to Princess Margaret”.
Never two without three… or four
For the occasion, Frank Sinatra was supposed to feature Sonny and Cher, but backed out at the last minute. Bob Hope then saved the day to do it for him, but the event started late. There was no stage on August 26, 1966, the singer remembers: “So we were on the dance floor”. And to top it all off, Princess Margaret was suffering from laryngitis. “The acoustics were so bad that with the sound problems our performance was terrible. » And as if that wasn't enough, Peter Bogdanovich, then critic for the magazine Saturday Evening Post, was present, writing that the two artists “howled like two coyotes.”
American singers Cher and Sonny Bono outside Associated Rediffusion's Wembley television studios, London, August 26, 1966.
Ivan Keeman
