CHER - My Best (&Worst!) SHOWBIZ MEMORIES

THE PERFORMER LOOKS BACK AT HER LIFE AND LONG CAREER IN A TWO-PART MEMOIR

- LOUISE A. BARILE

If you can last long enough, people take you seriously,” says Cher, who scored her first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, “I Got You Babe,” at age 19. Since then, she’s rarely stood still in a career that has survived seven decades and won her Oscar, Emmy and Grammy awards. Still, it hasn’t all been gold trophies and applause. “I wouldn’t have chosen the horrible downs,” Cher, 78, confides. “The fabulous ups I would have chosen, but not the other.”

In a new two-part autobiography, Cher: The Memoir, the first of which was released on Nov. 19, the singer looks back at her triumphs and heartbreaks. “My life seems to be longer than any other human being ever,” she jokes.