Pop · Rock · Dance
“Six decades of reinvention, one unmistakable voice.”
The biography
Cher, born Cherilyn Sarkisian on May 20, 1946, in El Centro, California, is one of the rare performers whose career has thrived in every decade since the 1960s. She first found fame as one half of Sonny & Cher, the husband-and-wife duo whose 1965 hit “I Got You Babe” made them counterculture icons, then proved she could stand alone with a string of early-1970s solo smashes and a hit television variety show.
When pop trends shifted, Cher shifted faster. She conquered Broadway and Hollywood in the 1980s, winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for Moonstruck (1987), then stormed back onto the charts in 1989 with a rock-driven comeback. A decade later, “Believe” (1998) turned her into a dance-floor queen for a new generation and made her an early pioneer of the vocal effect that soon defined millennial pop.
The numbers tell their own story: Cher has scored No. 1 records on Billboard charts in six consecutive decades, from the 1960s through the 2010s. From folk-rock duo to disco queen, Oscar winner to dance-pop pioneer, she has treated reinvention not as a survival tactic but as an art form — and that unmistakable contralto has carried through every chapter.