Cher

Few entertainers' career paths have been as forked as Cher's. Getting her start when Sonny Bono took her under his wing and became her producer, collaborator and eventually husband, the duo produced some of the most popular duets of all time, including "I Got You Babe" and "The Beat Goes On." They parlayed that success into a 1970s variety show that showcased the pair's onstage banter and had everyone asking (as Joe Jackson would later put it), "Is she really going out with him?" Once divorced, Cher pursued a solo career with some success. "Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves" and "Half-Breed" were imaginative story-songs in the Vegas revue tradition that established her as a torchy, impassioned vocalist. As her acting career began to take precedence during the '80s, her singing career fell into arrears, as evidenced on disco debacles Take Me Home and Prisoner. Recently Cher has reasserted her singing prowess and charting abilities with the 1998 hit Believe; both the title track and "Strong Enough" fared favorably on dancefloors. Clubby, slickly produced, and re-mix ready, Cher's new sound shows she'll never be too old to learn new tricks -- especially when those tricks come from Madonna.