Cher's Believe

By 1998, Cher seemed fated to fade off into the pop sunset. Her time of being half of pop music's "It couple," of releasing chart-topping singles, of having her own TV show, with starring in box office breaking movies, was coming to an end. But then Believe and a new invention called auto-tune changed everything. Pop has always been a young person's game, especially for women, and a new dawn of that obsessive youth was in full swing in the late '90s. But Cher's return to inescapability at 52 years old-making her the oldest woman to reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100-was a refusal to accept that model. Full of fire, cutting edge choices, and a strong advocacy for one's self, Believe was her giant musical middle finger to all those assumptions. The album confirmed her place as a pop icon, a queer icon, a feminist icon, and reminds us that everyone should believe they can be strong enough.

Lior Phillips is a South African music and culture journalist originally from Cape Town, now based in Chicago, USA. She writes about music, film, art, and more for international publications, including Variety, The Guardian, Dazed and Confused Magazine, The Creative Independent, The Grammys, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, The Quietus, NPR, The New York Times, and GQ South Africa. In addition, she created, produced, and hosted This Must Be the Gig, a podcast dedicated to artists' vital memories of their first gigs and passion for live music and performance. She is the author of South African Popular Music (Bloomsbury 2023).

Introduction: If You Could Turn Back Time 1. All I Really Want To Do 2. Mom, I Am a Rich Man 3. And I Can't Break Through 4. Cher, the Mathematician, and the Dance Floor 5. What Am I Supposed To Do? Sit Around and Wait For You? 6. Strong Enough 7. And There's No Turning Back