She’s been an industry living legend for over five decades now, but Cher‘s still finding new things to do with herself.
With her 26th studio album (I know, insane) Closer To The Truth out on shelves tomorrow, the powerhouse performer’s promo schedule is now in full swing, including already iconic interviews — like the one with USA Today, in which she referred to herself as “almost 100” and called Miley Cyrus‘ body “hell” — and now, her first live early morning TV performance…ever.
Like her debut TV performance on The Voice (but without the purple Thanksgiving turkey wig resting on her head this time), “Woman’s World” went down in a big extravaganza of smoke machines, exuberant back-up dancers and sassy finger pointing. I can’t say it’s my favorite Cher performance to watch — mostly because it always looks like she’d rather be at home tweeting shade at Madonna — but at least she looked damn good.
Later on, Cher slowed things down with a stirring rendition of her Closer To The Truth track “I Hope You Find It,” which turns out to be a cover of a Miley Cyrus soundtrack song from her critically slaughtered 2010 silver screen offering, The Last Song. (Somehow, the Miley connection eluded me when I heard the track at the listening party in August. Fancy that!) Much like her show-stopping performance of “You Haven’t Seen The Last of Me” in Burlesque (WAGON WHEEL WATUSI), Cher truly knows how to command a ballad on stage — even when she forgets the words and mouths “Fuck!” at the 6-minute mark.
Best of all though, obviously, is her performance of her 1998 masterpiece, “Believe.” Whether it’s the fact that she’s been comfortably warbling the Auto-Tune dance floor anthem for well over 15 years now or simply because of the copious shots of Hoda Kotb flipping the fuck out in the crowd (you betta work, bitch!), “Believe” was the clear highlight of this morning’s mini-showcase.
Beyond her promotional performances, Cher also used the early morning TV platform to formally announce the Dressed To Kill Tour, something she’s been incoherently yelling about over the past few weeks on Twitter. The tour officially kicks off in Phoenix next year (check here for tour dates). Oh, and the promo poster looks like this…
Tiara lashes. Follow that, you bitches.
Closer To The Truth will be released on September 24. (iTunes)