Cher's Net Worth In 2023 Will Make You Believe (In Big Bucks)
Cher's net worth in 2023 is high because the woman does not stop working!
For all of her successes, Cher has had a lot of career downturns as well, though her phoenix-like dedication to reinvention and rising up from her valleys has been what carried her through to icon status. (Seriously, if you didn't know, would you believe she was dropped from two different record labels?!)
"If you can’t get a record deal, it can’t be more over than that. It’s the idea that you worked your whole life, and then it’s 'We don’t want to waste our time on you,'" she told Parade in 2018. "That’s a big deal for a singer. I wouldn’t have chosen the horrible downs. The fabulous ups I would have chosen, but not the other."
The iconic singer and actress has famously embarked on more than one farewell tour, and she explained that she just has a lot more she wants to create and accomplish before hanging up her (Bob Mackie) hat.
"A friend of mine said, 'Why are you doing all this?' I said, 'Because someday I won’t be able to,'" she recalled. "Katharine Hepburn, who I met a couple of times, was already old when I met her, but I remember her being really vital. Then, when I saw her years after that, she wasn’t. She had been the toughest woman. And she finally got too old. That’s going to come and I have more I want to do. I’m not finished!"
And she really isn't: She's now added a Broadway show about her life to her resume, a possible biopic and a new brand of her own gelato. Is there anything the Goddess of Pop can't do—other than retire? Find out Cher's net worth in 2023 and how she made it.
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How did Cher become famous?
Born Cherilyn Sarkisian on May 20, 1946, Cher's upbringing wasn't an easy one. Her mother, Georgia Holt, was a struggling actress and waitress, her father a truck driver, and they divorced when Cher was 10 months old. Her mother then married an actor named John Southall.
The family wasn't financially stable—Cher was actually placed in an orphanage at one point when her mother was out of work. Her mother introduced Cher to show business, getting her and her sister parts as extras in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, but Southall's drinking problem and the family's financial struggles ultimately led Holt to divorce him, and she, Cher and Cher's younger half-sister Georgeanne, moved around the country often.
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Despite her mother's lack of success in the industry, Cher was determined to make it as an entertainer in some capacity, dropping out of high school and moving to Los Angeles with a friend when she was just 16 years old. She worked as a nightclub dancer to support herself and took acting classes and networked like crazy.
Cher met Sonny Bono, then a fledgling songwriter, in a coffee shop in 1962, and when Cher's friend and roommate moved out, Cher accepted Bono's offer to be his housekeeper; eventually, he introduced her to Phil Spector. Spector hired her to sing backup on some of his most iconic songs, including The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" and The Ronettes' "Be My Baby."
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Cher and Bono became romantically involved and married in 1964, when Cher was just 18 years old. They began performing live together, mostly because having Bono with her helped Cher manage her stage fright. They released several unsuccessful singles as the duo Caesar & Cleo, but it was enough to get the attention of Imperial Records, where Cher signed as a solo artist. Bono produced tracks for her, including "Dream Baby," which received local airplay in the Los Angeles area, as well as a cover of Bob Dylan's "All I Really Want to Do." Cher's cover charted at No. 15, and Bono and Cher moved to the U.K. They released "I Got You Babe" as Sonny and Cher and knocked none other than The Beatles off the top of the charts in 1965, becoming worldwide sensations.
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Sonny and Cher's popularity waned toward the end of the 1960s, and she continued releasing solo music concurrently. Both the duo and Cher as a solo artist were dropped from their respective labels in 1969. They went into deep debt bankrolling Cher's feature film Chastity, though it garnered her positive attention for her skill and onscreen charisma as an actress. The duo began performing at nightclubs, and Cher's heckling of Bono made them a hit and gave them a comeback, leading to The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour in 1971. Cher then saw a resurgence of popularity as a solo musical artist, and she's been a staple (and gay icon) ever since.
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What is Cher's net worth in 2023?
Cher's net worth in 2023 is estimated at $360 million, thanks to her six decades of work as a singer, actress and overall Goddess of Pop.
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What was Sonny Bono's net worth when he died?
Sonny Bono's estimated net worth at the time of his death in 1998 was $4 million.
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How much did Cher make for Burlesque?
Screen Gems
Burlesque, released in 2010, was Cher's first lead role in a movie since 1999's Tea With Mussolini. Cher's salary for the film, in which she co-starred with Christina Aguilera, isn't publicly known, but it's likely she made at least $1 million for the role, because that was what she commanded for Moonstruck and Suspect in the 1980s, according to The New York Times.
Related: Diana Ross' Net Worth Is Supreme
How much did Cher get for Mamma Mia?
Universal Pictures
Cher reportedly made a whopping $1 million for just seven minutes of screentime in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again in 2018. She agreed to do the movie before she ever even saw a script.
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“The reason I did Mamma Mia 2 is because my agent, my old agent, and my dear, dear friend Ronnie Meyer, who is the head of all of Universal [Studios], called me up and said, ‘Cher you’re doing Mamma Mia’ and hung up,” she recalled later.
How much does Cher make a year?
Cher's annual salary varies by her projects and whether she's performing live and touring. During her Las Vegas residency heyday prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, she was making a reported $60 million annually for her Sin City shows, though she admitted a lot of that also went to overhead costs for her 100-deep staff.
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How many movies did Cher make?
Cher has been in 15 movies, including her debut Chastity and her Oscar-winning turn in Moonstruck with Nicolas Cage.
"I really liked most of the films I’ve been in," she previously told Parade. "There are flops that I loved, like Mermaids. But Moonstruck is the best because it’s a really amazing cast and everyone got along so well."
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How many albums did Cher make?
To date, as a solo artist, Cher has released 26 studio albums, in addition to three live albums and 10 compilations—and she's appeared on four movie soundtracks. She also released five albums as half of Sonny & Cher. It's part of why she's so rich, as well as part of why she is, indeed, the Goddess of Pop.