Cher in concert: 5 things to know
One of the biggest female recording artists and most beloved all-around entertainers in history, Cher has sold 100 million albums worldwide and earned every major award — Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, Golden Globe — that’s handed out. In short, she’s the kind of largerthan-life showbiz multihyphenate that hardly exists anymore.
On March 16, Cher will bring her “Here We Go Again” concert tour to Memphis for a stop at Downtown’s Fedexforum.
Here are five things to know before you go.
An iconic pop culture figure for more than six decades, it’s difficult to convey the scope of Cher’s achievements and her uncanny ability to move between media yet retain her distinctive essence as a performer. As half of the duo Sonny and Cher, she launched to pop stardom in the ‘60s, and then found television success with the couple’s variety show. Splitting with Bono and going solo, Cher continued to hit the charts in the ‘70s, before transitioning into a major film star. She would reinvent herself as a modern music star in the late-’90s with the global dance hit “Believe” and continues to be a force — on screen, stage and record — in 2020.
Cher’s “Here We Go Again” run marks her first world tour in nearly 15 years. Historically, she’s been no stranger to the South — having played arenas in nearby Nashville and even North Little Rock, Arkansas, somewhat regularly — but March 16’s show will be only the second time Cher has ever played in Memphis as a solo act.
It will also mark her first appearance in the Bluff City since 2003, when she appeared at the Pyramid as part of her “Living Proof: The Farewell Tour.” Fortunately for fans of the singer, Cher’s retirement from the concert stage only lasted a decade — she went back on the road in the U.S. in 2014, and then announced the global “Here We Go Again Tour” in 2018. Cher is ostensibly out in support of her most recent LP, “Dancing Queen,” an album of ABBA covers, a project that came as outgrowth of her appearance in the sequel to the successful musical “Mama Mia.”
Clearly, her popularity has only grown with time. In 2019, Cher set a personal record, grossing over $100 million for the tour and her Vegas residency shows.
Cher’s concerts have been hailed as both an over-the-top spectacle and an intimate affair — with production pieces that move from ancient Rome to the ‘60s Sunset Strip, and see her riding mechanical elephants, engaging in myriad wig and costume changes, heart-tugging digital duets and hilarious monologues. Even at age 73, Cher’s showmanship is undiminished. Reviewing a stop on the tour last year, Rolling Stone raved calling her performance “proof that she is our most indestructible force.” While the U.K.’S Guardian newspaper summed up her fall concert at London’s’ O2 arena by noting that “her voice sounds fantastic and she looks extraordinary; the visual bombardment is relentless and willfully, stupidly, charmingly [over-the-top].”
As support for the tour Cher has enlisted disco/funk greats Nile Rodgers and Chic, who will open the show with a selection of their dance floor classics including “Le Freak,” and “Good Times,” as well as Rodgers-penned songs made famous by others, like Diana Ross’ “Upside Down,” and Sister Sledge’s “We Are
Family.”
Cher’s set lists have been clocking in at 15 songs and around 2 hours, with time for video interludes and her often hilarious storytelling segues. Early in the set, Cher pays homage to her past, playing songs made famous by her and her former husband, Sonny Bono (“The Beat Goes On,” “I Got You Babe”). Somewhat surprisingly, Cher skips her own early solo hits, catchy if kitschy ‘70s chart-toppers like “Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves,” “Half Breed” and “Dark Lady.” Instead, she focuses a good portion of the performance on her recent ABBA covers LP and late-‘90s dance-oriented hits like “All or Nothing” and “Believe.” Cher also offers what are sure to be some especially 901-pleasing moments, with tributes to the early influence of Elvis on her life, as well as a performance of Marc Cohn’s “Walking in Memphis,” which she recorded for her 1995 album “It’s a Man’s World.”
Unlike most, or at least many, superstar shows, tickets to Cher’s Fedexforum
concert are priced quite reasonably. Seats in the 200 level cost just $24, a bargain by any standard. Pinnacle level seating jumps only slightly to the $36 to $56 range, with 100 level tickets costing between $76 and $96. Even most floor seats run from $126 to $146. Only front row center seats will set you back seriously, with the handful of remaining prime tickets there costing around $500.