Cher is one of a kind: a singer, actress, fashionista, gossip magnet, and LGBTQ+ icon who has been a star since the mid-1960s.
Her extraordinary career includes a multitude of triumphs and failures from marriages to television programmes to films, albums, and concert tours. Throughout it all, Cher has held fast to her identity while also reinventing her image and career, defying those that wrote her off at numerous times in her career.
She has hosted one of the top television shows in America (The Sonny and Cher Show), released best-selling albums, appeared on Broadway, won an Academy Award (for Moonstruck), advocated for political causes, fundraised for charitable foundations, and has written part one of her memoir (Cher: The Memoir, Part One; part two will be released in 2026).
This talk will focus on Cher’s extensive multimedia career, considering how she rose from being part of the Sonny and Cher duo in her twenties to becoming a film and solo music star in her thirties and forties to her greatest ‘comeback’ in her fifties (with the single, ‘Believe’) to her contemporary icon status as she turns 80 in 2026.
Dr Julie Lobalzo Wright is an Associate Professor in Film and Television Studies at the University of Warwick. She has taught and researched film and television stardom for many years, publishing work and giving talks on various stars, including Judy Garland, Elvis Presley, David Bowie and Barbra Streisand. Her next project is a book length study of Barbra Streisand that will focus on the authorship of her star image throughout her career.