Cher (born Cheryl Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer, and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes, and the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival Award for her work in film, music, and television. She is the only person in history to receive all of these awards. She began her career as a backup singer and came to prominence in 1965 as one-half of the pop rock duo Sonny & Cher with the success of their song "I Got You Babe". She subsequently established herself as a solo recording artist and became a television star in 1971 with The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, a variety show for which she won a Golden Globe. A well-received performance in the film Silkwood earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress of 1983. In the following years, she starred in a string of hit films including Mask, The Witches of Eastwick, and Moonstruck, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1988.
Cher, throughout a career spanning over 49 years, has broken many records. She is the only artist to reach #1 on a Billboard chart in each of the past six decades. Her hit dance single "Believe" is her biggest-selling recording and was the best-selling single of 1999, having sold over 10 million copies worldwide. She holds the Hot 100 record for the longest hit-making career span, with 33 years between the release of her first and last Billboard Hot 100 #1 singles (1965 and 1999) and 45 years between her first and last #1 ranking on any Billboard chart Cher ended her 3-year-long "Farewell Tour" in 2005 as the most successful tour by a female solo artist to that time. Cher has sold over 100 million albums worldwide. After a three-year hiatus and retirement from touring, she returned to the stage in May 2008 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas where she performed her show Cher at the Colosseum until February 2011. She has a deep contralto vocal range that spans 3 octaves & 3 notes, from a baritone C3 up to her head voice F6, which is above soprano C.