Cher slays with Cannes charity performance; lunch with her auctioned off for $65K
Forget about the movies. According to Variety, Cher‘s performance got the best response at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Cher headlined the annual fundraiser for amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, taking the stage at the event in the South of France in the early hours of May 24. She performed her hit cover of Marc Cohn‘s “Walking in Memphis,” plus her cover of ABBA‘s “Waterloo,” “If I Could Turn Back Time” and, of course, “Believe.”
“I thought you guys would be drunk, but obviously you’re not,” Cher told the crowd. Variety notes that Cher would have gotten the longest standing ovation at Cannes this year, but nobody sat down during her 15-minute set.
While introducing “Believe,” Cher reminisced that when she turned 50, her record company dropped her and so did her manager. “So, then, I was like, ‘I don’t know what to do.’ Then a man from England” — she likely was referring to the record company executive Rob Dickins — “said, ‘I still believe in you, come here! I got a song for you to sing and we’ll see what happens.’ And this is what it was.”
That song revived her career and is just one reason she’s being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in October. Cher also contributed to the funds raised during the event: A lunch with her was auctioned off for $65,000.
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