Cher will kick off her Australian tour in Newcastle

She will perform at Newcastle Entertainment Centre on September 26.

Cher, born Cheryl Sarkisian, has not toured Australia since 2005. Her three-year Farewell Tour played to more than 3 million fans worldwide.

While a teenager, the American studio backing singer found fame in the 1960s as one half of duo Sonny and Cher. Sonny Bono was an up-and-coming producer and they quickly became household names with the worldwide smash hit I Got You Babe. They also married and starred on The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour however the show ended when the marriage dissolved.

As a solo artist Cher again topped the charts with songs like Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves, Half-Breed and Dark Lady before turning her attention to acting. She starred in movies Silkwood, The Witches Of Eastwick and Mask and won an Academy Award in 1988 for her performance in Moonstruck.

“I don’t think that this award means that I’m somebody,” Cher said during her Oscar acceptance speech, “but maybe I’m on my way.”

More films followed, including Mermaids, Tea With Mussolini and Stuck On You. She has received a Grammy, an Emmy, three Golden Globes, a Cannes Film Festival Award and a People’s Choice Award. In July she will return to the big screen in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.

Cher stunned the music world with yet another dramatic re-invention in the 1980s. Who can forget her video – and her outfit – for If I Could Turn Back Time? Hits Just Like Jesse James and I Found Someone followed, but it would be her venture into dance music at the age of 52 with the Grammy-winning, 20 million-selling single Believe that eclipsed them all. Follow-up hits included Strong Enough and All or Nothing.

Put it this way – Cher has topped the Billboard charts every decade for the past six decades.

From 2008 to 2011 Cher came out of retirement and performed a concert series at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. In 2013 she released Closer to the Truth, her first studio album in 12 years.

Cher’s Australian tour will celebrate one of music’s most phenomenal and enduring careers. Fans can expect to be dazzled by the typically flamboyant style of Cher’s costumes and elaborate stage production.

Newcastle Herald