Grammy-award winning singer Cher has revealed she cannot bear to listen to her own music and is so shy she struggled to sing in front of ex-husband Sonny.
The iconic pop star, 73, who will arrive in the UK this week for her Here We Go Again world tour, told how she still feels faint before going on stage to perform in front of people.
‘I don’t want to listen to what I do, I don’t want to see it and I don’t want to hear my voice,’ she told The Sun On Sunday.
‘I’m kind of shy. When I’m on stage that feeling goes away, but right before I go up I feel like I am going to pass out. I couldn’t even sing in front of Sonny.’
Singer Cher (pictured on her 2019 world tour in Austria) has revealed that she would much rather sing than listen back to her vocals
The pop icon (pictured on The Sonny And Cher Show in 1975) admitted she doesn’t listen to her music and is not the outgoing person people think she is
The singer, who was born in El Centro, California, first began working as a dancer during the 1960s at clubs along Hollywood’s iconic sunset strip that passes through the city of West Hollywood.
As she tried to make a living, the singer, who was born Cherilyn Sarkisian, crossed paths with singer-songwriter Sonny Bono, who at the time was also trying to break into the music industry.
Cher, who was just 16 at the time, soon fell in love with Sonny, who was 27, and the pair got married in 1964 before going on to welcome their first child, Chaz Bono, together in 1969.
The following year, the couple, who formed the musical duo Sonny and Cher, released the 1965 hit I Got You Babe which spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard 100 in the U.S and also reached number one in the UK and Canada.
However despite her overwhelming success across the world, Cher admitted that she was never an outgoing person and was not the confident songstress she presented to the outside world.
The singer, who was born Cherilyn Sarkisian, crossed paths with singer-songwriter Sonny Bono (left) while she was trying to earn a living along Hollywood’s iconic sunset strip
The couple, who formed the musical famous duo Sonny and Cher, fell in love and got married in 1964
Despite her worldwide fame, Cher admitted that she is ‘kind of shy’ and would feel self-conscious about singing in front of Sonny
The Believe hitmaker recalled one moment when she was woken by Sonny, who at the time was writing the soon-to-be hit I Got You Babe, during the middle of the night and asked to sing a few lines from the song.
She added: ‘So I go there and he says ”Right sing this”. I said ”I don’t want to” and he said ”Cher, it’s only me, just sing it”. So I did and afterwards I said, ”I don’t think it is even good, I am going back to bed”.’
In 1974, after a strenuous relationship, Cher filed for divorce from Sonny citing ‘involuntary servitude’.
Earlier this year she told Parade Magazine that her former husband would exert an increasing amount of control over her and that fame also turned him into a ‘womaniser’.
The American singer went on to win an Oscar for her role in Moonstruck at the 60th Annual Academy Awards (pictured)
She said he didn’t grant her any freedom, claiming she wasn’t allowed to do anything except work.
Cher added that she only found out afterwards about his womanising ways, insisting that even five women wouldn’t be ‘enough’ for him.
Cher later had a second child, named Elijah Blue, in 1976 with the the Southern rocker Gregg Allman.
The pop singer will now commence the UK leg of her world tour, which kicked off in September 2018, on October 20 at London’s O2 arena.
The Here We Go Again Tour is the seventh solo concert tour by the American star, in support of her 26th studio album Dancing Queen, and is the first world tour since her Living Proof: The Farewell Tour, which took place between 2002–2005.