Cher

Just for the pleasure of it, I am adding two classic photos of Cher the way I remember her.

Where generations of kids in 1970s US watched her enormously popular TV shows (with and without husband Sonny Bono) I was not so lucky and grew up mostly ignorant of her significance, although her recognisable voice definitely sounded familiar from radio-waves but even than I was too small to actually know who was the singer. The very first time I actually stopped and paid attention was while listening 1981. album "Dead Ringer" by larger-than-life Meat Loaf - I must have been around twelve or so and was fascinated with album's cover illustration which looked like something out of Conan the Warrior. Well, on that album there was a duet with Meat loaf and Cher, real scorching number and I recall being very impressed with female voice which was all about attitude and very individual. It wasn't pretty or particularly feminine voice but it greatly appealed to me, though I still had no clue who this was. 

Fast forward few years and by 1987 (when Cher returned to recording studio after long sabbatical) I had already knew her as charismatic actress. There was some confusion, brought with her recent film work, where new generations (like me) were not sure is she actress or a singer - her self-titled, new Geffen album recorded with help of people like Michael Bolton, Jon Bon Jovi and Desmond Child presented her as a biker babe with a leather jacket (look closely on the back of the album and you'll find Vicki Sue Robinson, Bonnie Tyler and Darlene Love amongst backing vocals) which fitted neatly with her role as a biker mom in wonderful drama by Peter Bogdanovich "Mask" and to this day I think its the best film she ever made. "The Witches of Eastwick" and "Moonstruck" later brought her even bigger fame but in my mind, Academy Award for "Moonstruck" was belated recognition for "Mask" which was far more superior on dramatic level. At the time, newspapers were absolutely besotted with her plastic surgeries and it was all everybody was talking about, with lots of guessing and speculating how did she transform herself into such ravishing beauty - to my biggest surprise, I found out that she always was a great beauty and very attractive woman even decades ago, so this was kind of just of little correction.

And now we come to 1986. Academy Awards, the year of "The Color Purple" (that introduced Whoopi Goldberg and the Spielberg movie that Tina Turner refused), "Out of Africa" and "Prizzi's Honor", the year when Harrison Ford danced with beautiful Kelly McGillis in "Witness". It was also a year when Cher (presenting the award for the best supporting actor) swept on the stage looking absolutely magnificent in Bob Mackie creation - forget about anybody else, people talked only about her costume which was something out of SF movie. Now I understand this was completely typical for woman who used to intrigue TV audiences with her shocking costumes back in 1970s but it was at the same time middle finger to Hollywood society who snubbed her showbiz roots and calculated attempt to overshadow everybody else (very successful one). I still remember how enchanted I was and today I bring you photo from that evening.