There was a time when the entertainment industry dictated that women had an expiration date, but Cherilyn Sarkisian, popularly known as Cher, was born precisely to dynamite that rule and establish herself as a living pop culture legend.
Cher celebrates her 80th birthday this Wednesday at the peak of reinvention, although on a personal level she is going through a complex situation due to the legal guardianship of her youngest son, Elijah Blue Allman, due to his severe addiction problems.
The American singer, born in El Centro (California), requested last April the guardianship of her son, currently in a psychiatric center for his mental health problems and after committing several crimes.
Elijah’s deteriorating health condition has forced the artist to request full control of her son’s finances and medical decisions to prevent her trust funds from continuing to finance his addiction.
Cher and her 80 years better than ever: The refuge in music
The harsh reality now facing Cher, who has never had an easy life, contrasts with a career that began in the mid-1960s with her husband Sonny Bono, with whom she created a television and musical phenomenon that defined the hippie aesthetic.
That duo marked a generation with anthems such as ‘I Got You Babe’, but his true potential was realized when he took the reins of his solo career and proved that his talent did not depend on anyone.
The artist transited from the folk of ‘Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves’ to the stadium rock of ‘If I Could Turn Back Time’, a versatility that has made her the only one capable of topping the Billboard charts with number ones from the 1960s to 2020.
But to reduce Cher to music would be to forget her idyll with Hollywood, where she decided to turn to in the 80s, achieving majestic performances in projects such as ‘Silkwood’ (1983), which starred alongside Meryl Streep; or ‘Mask’ (1995).
The climax of her film career came in 1988 when she won her first and only Oscar for Best Female Performer for ‘Moonstruck’, a historic night where she also broke the mold on the red carpet with a daring transparent dress by Bob Mackie.
Believing in life after love
But, undoubtedly, what Cher is known worldwide for is a song that is already a myth: the song ‘Believe’, which raises in its famous refrain whether there is life after love, became an anthem that is part of pop culture.
This success not only broke records, but proved that the great diva continues to defy time, saying goodbye to prejudice with her boots on and a new wig for every occasion.
His legacy continues to be built day by day, as was seen at the last Grammy Awards, where after accepting a lifetime achievement award, he gave a powerful speech encouraging the pursuit of dreams.
After concluding her speech to a long ovation, the artist was about to leave, but the presenter had to stop her to remind her that she still had one more award to present, reported Agencia EFE.
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