CityLife

Farewell to Cher - queen of the divas

LET'S face it, we've all grown terribly cynical about so-called "farewell" tours. So there was some scepticism when Cher called her world tour, arriving at the Manchester Evening News Arena on Monday, May 17 "The Farewell Tour". But, it seems, the lady's not for turning.

"I've become tired of the travelling, eating bad food and not getting enough sleep," the soon-to-be-58-year-old recently proclaimed. "I'm not kidding about `Farewell'. But I'm not retiring. I'm planning another album.

"I'll never turn my back on singing but it's the last time I'll take off around the world like this. It's too hard. The schedule would break the back of a 25 year old, yet here I am at 57.

"Plus I know this is as good as I'm ever going to be, I'd rather bow out at the top than have people say `Yeah, but she was better last time around'."

Chums

Speaking of the many young pretenders to her throne, her recent live shows have featured her challenging J-Lo, Britney, Christina and all their little chums to "follow this, you bitches".

Cue, of course, delirious applause from a devoted audience that she characterises as "ladies, gentlemen and flamboyant gentlemen!"

The North American leg of the `Farewell Tour' spanned 202 shows, including six massive sold-out nights at New York's Madison Square Garden.

During the tour, which began in June, 2001 and did not finish until early this year, Cher played to a remarkable 2.2m fans in what became the biggest US tour ever by a female artist.

A two-hour TV concert special filmed at Miami was watched by more than 17m Americans, their highest rated music programme in almost four years.

"I toured so long in America I wasn't sure I would make it overseas," she says. "I'm very proud of this show. I think I'm going out on a high and I wanted to share it with all my UK fans."

Charted

She has, as the publicity machine doesn't miss an opportunity to remind us, charted consistently since the sixties.

Such longevity cannot be solely due to the skills of her various personal and musical collaborators but she herself puts it down to perspiration rather than inspiration.

"People far more talented than me have fallen by the wayside, so I can't claim it's because I'm better than anyone else," she candidly admits.

"All I can say is that I've been flexible and that's a big help when it comes to survival. Whenever I've hit a dead end in one area of my career, I've just tried my hand at something else.

"Singing, recording, TV, cabaret, stage acting, film acting, directing - I've never been afraid to try something new, even if it's out of necessity. Adapt or die, they say, and I really think it's true."

Cher performs at the Manchester Evening News Arena on Monday, May 17. Tickets are é35-é45 - to book, call 0870 060 1768 or visit the website below.