Cher
Living Proof - The Farewell Tour

61 years old, 42 of career. 3 Golden Globes, 3 Billboard Music Awards, 2 Echo Awards, 2 World Music Awards, 1 Oscar for Best Actress ("Moonstruck") plus an endless list of other awards and recognitions (Cannes Film Festival, Women's World Award, etc.).
American icon, continuously at the forefront since 1965, first in a duo with her then-husband Salvatore "Sonny" Bono, later as a solo artist. Singer, film and theater actress, TV personality, political figure and involved in humanitarian initiatives, queen of gossip. This and much more is Cher, one of the most famous, chameleonic, and versatile artists in contemporary history. The "Living Proof - The Farewell Tour" is a fitting summary of all this. A true celebration of the forty-year career of an artist who has left an indelible mark in the history of music and beyond, changing the way modern arts are conceived. And to think she started humbly at just nineteen as a backup singer for the great Phil Spector.
She was immediately noticed for her distinctive, very deep and warm voice, and was offered to record as a solo artist. She was too shy, the young Cherilyn, half Native American (Cherokee) and half Armenian, had too many complexes about her aquiline nose, her imperfect teeth, and her "little squaw" image which clashed with the glossy Marilyn Monroe or Jane Mansfield model that was popular at the time. It was for this reason that Sonny, then a collaborator and apprentice at Spector's, proposed they sing as a duo using the stage names Ceasar & Cleo. Their early demos went unnoticed, until Bono’s musical genius conceived "I Got You Babe," now a symbol of the Sixties. This is how young Cher and her boyfriend (soon husband) Sonny were catapulted into the American star system, stringing success after success, with songs like "The Beat Goes On" or "A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done".
Then pieces were released where Cher finally sang as a soloist: we remember titles like "Bang Bang - My Baby Shot Me Down," "All I Really Want To Do," "Half Breed," and many others. It was the second half of the Sixties, Cher was young, shy but full of grit. Forty years later, we find her still on stage. Her grit, her vitality are still the same. Only, the shyness, awkwardness, and... the characteristic little bump on her nose are gone. Cher has wisely decided to leave the stage while still physically fit and continue recording but without live performances: it's better to leave an image of yourself full of life rather than try to appear when the body can no longer support it. This is why the Farewell Tour was conceived.

The concert opens with a tribute to U2 and a more rhythmic and energetic version of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". The entrance of the diva is, as expected, spectacular. Dressed as a Siberian queen, with a majestic fur coat and a platinum blonde wig, Cher is lowered onto the stage on a giant chandelier. After removing the voluminous fur, the sixty-year-old former child prodigy remains in a tiny and transparent dress of sequins and spangles that highlights a physique that is anything but weighed down by age and still toned and athletic, despite the years (thankfully due to both physical and surgical activity). The concert immediately kicks off at a fast pace: the second song is "Song For The Lonely", from the latest album, a piece dedicated to the 9/11 massacre. This is followed by the first interlude with a hilarious monologue from the diva, where she makes unflattering comments about the "new blood" like J-Lo and Britney Spears, saying "There's all these young girls that are coming to take... well they're not gonna take my place, but they're gonna take somebody's place," and armed with a riding crop, invites the young artists to follow her show: "follow this you bitches," she tells them. Then come three big hits: "All Or Nothing", "I Found Someone", and "Bang Bang - My Baby Shot Me Down" in the revised and corrected version in collaboration with Bon Jovi.
At this point, we have the second interlude, made of historical films in which we see Sonny & Cher in their shows and their appearances of the era that move and thrill the older spectators. From the shadows emerges Cher dressed and styled exactly as she was 40 years ago to perform "All I Really Want To Do", her first solo single. This is followed by other successes from the past, that is, "Half Breed", "Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves", "Dark Lady", and "Take Me Home", which concludes with a sort of strip-tease from the dance troupe. This is followed by a heartfelt and evergreen "The Way Of Love" creating a romantic atmosphere, with the diva flaunting a sensual purple dress.
This is followed by a second interlude which includes various performances of Cher together with the greatest artists of the second half of the 20th century, with whom she collaborated during her long career, such as Lily Tomlin, Tina Turner, Elton John, Michael Jackson, and then a harrowing segment of her extraordinary film career with clips and small trailers of some of her most successful movies (among others "Silkwood," "Mask," "The Witches of Eastwick," "Moonstruck," "Tea with Mussolini"). Dressed in jeans and a white shirt, Cher reappears on stage to perform "After All", in a duet with Paul Mirkovic, the keyboardist. From this point on, it's a tour-de-force until the end of the show, with the sequence of "Just Like Jesse James", "Heart Of Stone", "The Shoop Shoop Song - It's In His Kiss". Just the time to change clothes and put on the characteristic "leather jacket" with a very short bodysuit, then come "Strong Enough" and the legendary "If I Could Turn Back Time".

The concert concludes with Cher, under a rain of sailor caps (a nod to the well-known song video), picking one from the ground and, after wearing it, tossing it to the audience. The only encore, what is perhaps the diva's greatest hit: "Believe", with Cher glittering and glamorous more than ever, wildly dancing with her dance troupe and dragging the crowd to the conclusion of what is perhaps one of the greatest, most grandiose, and extravagant concerts in music history. Lights, colors, sets, costumes, wigs, choreography, and pyrotechnics accompany Cher in great, top form, still beautiful and capable of performing live very challenging songs without a single flaw. An engaging, enveloping, astounding concert. Certainly exhausting even to watch, because it is so full of beauty that the viewer is literally overwhelmed. Cher then has a captivating stage presence. Even in the parts where she is alone on the dark stage, illuminated by a single spotlight, the scene is complete. She alone is enough to make the concert, the rest is a beautiful accompaniment. J-Lo, Britney Spears, but also Madonna and Kylie Minogue, should really take lessons from this old music panther who in 42 years of career has explored almost every genre, always creating superb works; demonstrating her extraordinary talent as a singer, actress, entertainer. There is only one Cher. No one can equal her, and the Farewell Tour is the proof and a fitting tribute. A tour that lasted more than three years, making her the female artist who conducted the longest tour ever, earning more than any other, achieving more successes than any other artist. This is not a "super partes" nor an objective review. But Cher deserves this praise. Her career is the proof.