Cher, born Cherilyn Sarkisian on May 20th, 1946, El Centro, California, US, is a singer and actress. Sometimes called the Goddess of Pop, she's been described as embodying female autonomy in a male-dominated industry. Cher is well-known for her distinctive contralto singing voice, having worked in a variety of forms of entertainment, while adopting many styles and appearances during her six-decade-long career. Cher became famous in 1965, as one-half of the folk rock husband-wife duo Sonny & Cher, after their song "I Got You Babe" reached # 1 on the American and British charts. By the end of 1967, they had sold 40 million records worldwide, having been labelled by Time magazine as rock's "it" couple. Cher began her solo career simultaneously, releasing her first million-seller song, "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)", in 1966. She became a TV personality in the 1970s, with their show 'The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour', watched by over 30 million viewers weekly during its three-year run, followed by her own show 'Cher'. She developed into a fashion trendsetter, by wearing elaborate outfits on her TV shows. While working on television, she established herself as a solo artist, with the U.S.Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping singles "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves", "Half-Breed", and "Dark Lady". After her divorce from Sonny Bono in 1975, Cher launched a comeback in 1979, with the disco album Take Me Home then earned $300,000 a week, for her 1980-82 concert residency in Las Vegas. In 1982, Cher made her Broadway debut, in the play Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean then starred in its film adaptation. She received critical acclaim for her performances in films including Silkwood(1983), Mask(1985), and Moonstruck(1987), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She then revived her musical career by recording the rock-inflected albums Cher(1987), Heart of Stone(1989), and Love Hurts(1991), from each of which came several successful singles. Cher reached anew heights of success in 1998 with the album Believe, its title track becoming the biggest-selling single of all time by a female artist in the UK, featuring the pioneering use of Auto-Tune, also known as the "Cher effect". Her 2002-2005 Living Proof: The Farewell Tour, became one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time, earning $250 million.