It's a farewell tour lasting three years and more than 300 performances. But when Cher leaves the stage during her April 30 finale finale at the Hollywood Bowl, she will, it promises, be over.
This cultural icon knows opportunities to say goodbye to her devout fans are numbered.
"I thought it was just farewell in the beginning but you can't go back to Chicago five times and New York six different times," she told the Taipei Times recently. "At some point someone is going to say, 'Goodbye, get out of here.' "
The 58-year-old icon, scheduled to play the Corel Centre on Saturday with opening act The Village People, hasn't been doing North American press in recent weeks. She's been on the other side of the world performing in Asia and Australia.
As she recently told Australian newspaper The Herald Sun, the tour's endurance has stumped her and her management.
"I'm putting it down to some kind of strange outer-space phenomena which is making people come to the show five times," she said. "The only other thing I can think of is that in my country right now, people really need some kind of stupid diversion, something that will give them a really good time so they can forget everything."
The outspoken Cher, who was born Cherilyn Sarkisian, has endured through four decades in music. Coming from a poor family, she got into show business when she was 16 as a dancer. She soon hooked up professionally and personally with singer/promoter Sonny Bono, with the pair making music and starring in their own variety show together.
The couple reunited briefly after their 1974 divorce but soon went their separate ways. Cher went on to acting, earning Academy Awards for her work in 1984's Silkwood and 1998's Moonstruck.
She's looking forward to being off the road after a gruelling period in which she also filmed a movie, virtually playing herself in 2003's Stuck on You, starring Greg Kinnear and Matt Damon.
Cher told one newspaper she'd like to work on a cattle ranch in Montana after she's done touring and another she wants to do animated work.
"I would love to sing in a Disney movie or do a voiceover in some animated film like Finding Nemo," she said. "I have called everybody and asked everybody. I sing, I am funny and I am an actress, but nobody wants me to be in an animated movie."
As a solo act Cher has more than a dozen albums and a wealth of hits to draw from for her tour show, everything from Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves to her late-'90s chart-topping anthem Believe.
During her time on stage Cher undergoes at least eight costume changes, descends from the ceiling on a giant chandelier and at one point, emerges from a giant mechanical elephant's backside.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports Cher dubbed it "the gayest show in town."
And while fans in the U.S. have been struggling to afford tickets costing hundreds of dollars, here in Ottawa some can still be had for between $59.50 and $89.50.
