22 MUSIC: “ALBUM OF THE YEAR!”

It’s certainly been a good year for Cher – she didn’t die and she appeared in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, which turned out to be not just a hoot, but a stonking hit. Springboarding from her success transforming ABBA’s Fernando into a new drag classic, living legend Cher decided the time was right to rip through the Swedish supergroup’s back catalogue for a whole album. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) has already set the high-camp tone – ’70 and ’80s ABBA hits done ’90s Believe style. It’s all perfect timing, too, for her Australian tour right about now. Then, in December the Broadway musical of her life, The Cher Show, debuts. You can’t keep a good dancing pensioner (queen) down.