Cher (IPA: /ʃɛɹ/ born Cherilyn Sarkisian on May 20, 1946) is an American pop singer-songwriter, actor, director and record producer. She has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globe Awards and a People's Choice Award for her work in film, music and television.

Cher began her career at the age of seventeen and came to prominence as one half of the pop rock duo Sonny & Cher when their song "I Got You Babe" became an overnight hit in 1965. She subsequently established herself as a solo recording artist, and became a television star in the 1970s with the variety show The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, for which she won a Golden Globe Award. A well received performance in the film Silkwood earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1984. In the following years, Cher starred in a string of hit films including Mask, The Witches of Eastwick, and Moonstruck, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1988.

Cher is the only female solo artist to reach the Top Ten of the Billboard Hot 100 in each of the previous four decades. Her hit dance single "Believe" is her biggest-selling recording and was the best-selling single of 1999., having sold over 10 million copies worldwide."Cher and Share Alike." Undercover.com.au. September 9, 2003. Archived from the original 1 November 12, 2005. She holds the record for the longest hit-making career span, with 33 years between the release of her first and most recent #1 singles, in 1965 and 1998. Cher ended her 3-year-long "Farewell Tour" in 2005 as the most successful tour by a female solo artist to that time.

With a career lasting over 40 years, Cher is an enduring pop culture icon and one of the most popular and biggest-selling artists in the the history of contemporary music, having sold over 100 million records worldwide. After a three-year hiatus and retirement from touring city to city, Cher returned to the stage in 2008 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas where she is currently performing her show Cher at the Colosseum.

Early life

Cher was born in El Centro, California, on May 20, 1946, at 7:25 a.m. Her father, John Sarkisian, was an Armenian refugee who worked as a truck driver.Film Reference.com Her mother, Georgia Holt (born Jackie Jean CrouchAncestry of Cher.), born in Sharp County, Arkansas, June 20, 1927, an aspiring actress and occasional model, is of Cherokee, English and French descent. Cher's half sister is actress Georganne LaPiere. Cher's parents divorced when she was young and she was raised primarily by her mother, who at one time was married to Gilbert LaPierre, a banker who adopted Cher. Due to financial problems, Cher's mother placed her in foster care for a time as a child. Later, her mother provided money for acting lessons to help further her career. Due to severe, undiagnosed dyslexia, she left Fresno High School at the age of 16. In those years Cher had a brief relationship with Warren Beatty.