Cher Cracks Joke About Madonna During New York City Tour Stop
Here we go again, indeed!
Cher has some playfully shady words for fellow pop diva Madonna on Thursday.
In between songs of her sold-out tour stop at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, the legendary singer, 73, appeared to throw a dig at the Material Girl, 60.
It happened while Cher was recalling her early days as an actress, and a phone call she claimed to have received on her 40th birthday from Witches of Eastwick director George Miller.
As Cher tells it, she was in negotiations to star in the 1987 comedy alongside Jack Nicholson at the time. But both Miller and Nicholson allegedly didn’t want her cast, with Miller telling Cher on the call that they were looking for someone younger and more attractive.
“He said, ‘We don’t think you’re sexy and you’re too old,’ ” Cher recalled. “It was terrible. Usually in Hollywood, when they insult you, they just hang up, but this guy was from Australia so he just kept going on and on and on. And he said, ‘I don’t like the way you walk and I don’t like the way you laugh and I hate the way you talk and blah blah blah blah blah.’ “
Hurt by his words, Cher recalls breaking down into tears. But it’s when she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror that she realized she could act. “The tears were streaming down, I was upset,” Cher recalls. “And then I thought, ‘Oh my gosh. These are fabulous tears! These are the tears you pay for as an actress!’ “
It was at that point in her story that Cher decided to throw some sass towards Madonna.
I thought, ‘If you [cry like] this, you kind of look like a Madonna,’ ” she said, quickly telling the audience, “Not the blonde one… the real one!”
The audience at the Barclays Center went crazy for Cher’s comment, erupting in applause. Meanwhile, the legendary singer kept the beat going on, finishing up her story (which ended in her getting that Witches of Eastwick role).
RELATED: Cher Says She Does Not Want to Duet with a Certain Fellow Music Icon: ‘Not Madonna’
This isn’t the first time Cher has expressed her feelings about Madonna, though they haven’t always been shady.
Back in 2013, Cher complimented Lady Gaga to USA Today by praising Madonna. “Gaga’s got ‘it,’ the way Madonna had ‘it,’ something that made you stop and go, ‘What’s that?’” she said. “It’s not just crazy clothes. Madonna had her ear to the ground and knew what was coming before anybody else.”
That same year though, during a 2013 Reddit AMA, Cher admitted that she “never hated” Madonna but “thought she was a bitch.”
“I quite respect her,” the Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again star said, “Actually I think Madge might be one of the most amazing artists I’ve known. I don’t like everything she does, for sure, but she is always riding the crest of the wave. She always saw trends WAY before anyone else, and had great videos.”
Still, there have been some other shady moments. In July 2012, Cher tweeted, “Wtf is mdna,” likely referring to Madonna’s 2012 album MDNA.
And in September 2018 — nearly a year after the music legends met up at the Women’s March — Cher appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show where she made it clear she would never want to duet with the singer.
Not that there’s much time for Cher to record a duet anyway.
The singer will be on the road for the rest of May with her Here I Go Again Tour, with stops in Grand Rapids, Michigan, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Sioux Falls, St. Paul, and Canada.
She takes June and July off but resumes shows at the end of August in Las Vegas before jumping across seas to Amsterdam, Denmark, Sweden, London, Manchester, Ireland and more throughout September, October and November. She’ll then be back in the states just before Thanksgiving to finish the Live Nation tour out through the holidays.
Her last show of the Here I Go Again Tour — which features Cher performing hit like “Believe,” “If I Could Turn Back Time,” and “Strong Enough” alongside songs from her ABBA tribute album Dancing Queen — is currently scheduled in Dallas on Dec. 19.
