Cher at 75 — When You Only Need One Name

In the past 75 years, Cherilyn Sarkisian LaPiere Bono Allman has had a longer-lasting career than most of her contemporaries. One would have to go back as far as Buddy Ebsen to find a versatile entertainer of the same longevity and versatility across TV, film, stage, and music. Then, there’s Dolly Parton, whose endless talent makes for an enduring career in music and film, not to mention substantial philanthropy in her hometown.

Anyone born in the 1950s has likely heard of Cher, the singer/actress/entertainer whose impact on the music, stage, and movie worlds spans at least one major radio hit for every decade in which she was been a working entertainer.

There are just a handful of performers who are identifiable by just their first name alone—Cher, Dolly, and Oprah to name a few.

Cher is in an illustrious group of performers who have won all but one of the EGOT quadfecta (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony). All she needs is the Tony to join the 16 people who have won all four awards. This group includes: Julie Andrews, Mel Brooks, Common, Viola Davis, Dick Van Dyke, Audrey Hepburn, Helen Mirren, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Rita Moreno, Lily Tomlin, and Kate Winslet.

The singer whom people have enjoyed mocking at times yet whose fan base carries greater longevity than some of those mockers have been alive has been nominated for seven Grammys and the winner of one. Who’s laughing now?

Her first Grammy nomination was in 1965 for best new artist. Six years later, she was nominated for Female Pop Vocal Performance for “Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves” and best Pop Vocal Performance by a duo, group, or chorus for the single, “All I Ever Need is You” in 1971, and the Record “Believe” was nominated for Record of the Year, Pop Vocal Album of the Year, and Dance Recording of the Year in 1999, winning for Dance Recording. In 2003 she was nominated again for Best Dance Recording for “Love One Another.”

With just the single “Believe,” Cher set records that were listed compiled in a 2020 article by Rhino Records:

“Oldest Female Artist to Achieve #1 hit on Billboard Hot 100

Solo Artist with longest time span between #1 hits (1974’s “Dark Lady”)

Longest gap between first #1 song (“I Got You Babe”) and 1999’s “Believe”

#1 on both 1999 Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Dance Club Play charts

#1 for seven weeks in the UK (won three Ivor Novello Awards—Best Selling UK Single, Best Song Musically and Lyrically, and International Hit of the Year)

First female solo single to be certified Triple Platinum in the UK (2014).

Now we’re in the new 2020 decade, surely Cher has one more Billboard charting hit awaiting her. No matter, Happy 75th birthday, Cher! You continue to set the bar higher for those who are on their journey now. Keep rocking, girl!

Then there is the entirely noncompetitive yet valid competition she won hands down every time—most unique style in the room, any room. Over the years she was on television and at awards shows, it was designed brilliantly by Bob Mackie.

Every key photographer in the country, Richard Avedon, Annie Liebowitz, Helmut Newton, Peter Lindbergh, and so many others captured her essence for just a moment through their lenses to last through seven decades of people discovering her talent.

For a young girl who grew up disconnected from others thanks to dyslexia, she managed to complete tenth grade before busting out of the doors. She found herself dealing with the fears and pleadings of her somewhat jealous mother, whose ego and beauty once reigned prominently under the same cameras her daughter would be destined for. Cher loved her through it all–eventually as she understood what it was like for women to prevail in a field that finds few friends when you look left and right.

At the end of the day, on this 75th anniversary of her birth, Cher still doesn’t take herself too seriously. The forthright, blunt, surprising, creative, stubborn, kind performer has left at least one legacy as a given long before she is past her age of entertaining audiences.

Personally, I’ll just wait for the next Farewell Concert Tour— I always love attending those. You can’t keep a good girl down. Happy Birthday, Cher, and thank you for all the entertainment that made life just a bit better for your gifts and talents.

A favorite painting of Cher: (Artist M. Fitzgerald)