Booking Cher

Cher Biography

American music legend Cheryl Sarkisian was born in 1946 in California. Cher, as she would become known, left school at the young age of sixteen, her studies challenged by severe and undiagnosed dyslexia, and when she was still a young teen she met Sonny Bono. Bono was working for Phil Spector at the time, and he began to help Cher find work as a session singer.

Cher and Bono married in 1964, and Cher sang on a number of Spector’s artists albums, including albums for the Ronettes, the Righteous Brothers, and the Crystals. “Ringo, I Love You” was Cher’s first recording on her own, but released under the name Bonnie Jo Mason. “Dream Baby” came next, released under the name Cherilyn, and Sonny and Cher continued a partnership where Bono wrote and produced most of her material.

Eventually, Sonny and Cher began recording together. Look At Us, their debut album, was released in 1965 and found immediate success on the strength of the hit single “I Got You Babe.” The follow up singles, “Baby Don’t Go,” “What Now My Love,” Little Man,” and “But You’re Mine” all fared well, but “The Beat Goes On” enjoyed the same level of success as the album’s first release. Between 1965 and 1972, Sonny and Cher spawned eleven hits that charted, and they sold eighty million albums.

Between 1971 and 1974, Sonny and Cher enjoyed their own television series, and they continued to work together until their divorce in 1975. Cher launched a solo career as a musician, releasing a series of albums throughout the rest of the 1970’s and beyond, well into the new millennium: I’d Rather Believe In You (1976), Cherished (1977), Take Me Home (1979), Prisoner (1979), Black Rose (1980), I Paralyze (1982), Cher (1987), Heart of Stone (1989), Love Hurts (1991), It’s a Man’s World (1995), Believe (1998), Not.com.mercial (2000), and Living Proof (2001.) She also launched six highly successful tours between 1979 and 2011.

Cher also found her flair for acting in the early 1980’s, a talent which has also served her well for the last three decades. Her first roles in Silkwood (1983), Mask (1985) and Moonstruck (1987) stunned audiences with her apparently untapped talent, with her Oscar win for Moonstruck securing her recognized title as singer/actress.

Thus far, Cher has thus far won Golden Globes, a Grammy, an Emmy, and an Oscar. She holds the record for the longest hit-making career, and has sold more than one hundred million records worldwide. In 2013, after more than a decade since her last solo album, Cher released Closer to the Truth, which went on to become her highest charting album to date. Most recently, Cher launched the Classic Cher Tour in 2017, performing throughout North America.