Jennifer Hudson pays tribute to Cher at the iHeartRadio Music Awards, performing “If I Could Turn Back Time,” before joining the 2024 Icon Award winner for “Believe” — plus, Cher’s longtime friend Meryl Streep offers touching tribute.
It was a trio of icons, including Jennifer Hudson and Meryl Streep, that celebrated one of the most iconic women of the modern era at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards. Celebrating a number one hit in each of the last seven decades, Cher is a more than worthy recipient, but it wasn’t an easy road to get here.
Just because she found success in each of those decades doesn’t mean it was smooth sailing the whole way through, which was a big part of Cher’s message. She spoke passionately and eloquently about dreams, and the one that carried her through her entire career.
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It was a dream she worried she’d lost when she and Sonny Bono went their separate ways and she tried to helm her own variety show. It was a dream she thought lost when she went to Las Vegas to put on a variety show. it was a dream that’s ebbed and flowed across her 77 years.
But it’s a dream that has reached its peak now. There are no more valleys in the story of Cher. She has reached her highest point as an artist, a humanitarian, and a living legend … or icon, as the term may be.
It’s only appropriate that her award was presented to her by one of the most revered women of her field, as well as a longtime friend. Streep was charming and delightful, talking about her friend and how it’s not just been her grit, talent and intelligence that’s carried her through. It’s been her heart.
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“When I think of Cher I think of her giant heart,” Streep said. “How open it is, how battered it is, and how strong it is. And how she leads with her heart in everything she does.”
When she hit the stage to accept the award, Cher quipped about the 40-year-old pants she was wearing (“I thought we should come here and accept this award together”) and about how her mom told her at five years old she could never be Dumbo because “he’s a cartoon.”
But while she kept it light, her message was one about strength in adversity and perseverance. “I want to tell you this because I don’t usually talk about it, but I have been down and out so many times that you can not believe it,” she said, “dropped from my record companies and couldn’t get a job.”
She marveled that she now gets to live her dream on stages like this one. “I stand there and the music plays and all of the sudden out of my body comes this voice and people seem to like it,” she marveled.
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“What I want to tell you through my experiences is have a dream and then don’t give it up no matter what happens because I know, from my own experience, if you have a dream and you stick with it, you will have a wonderful life and it probably will come true.”
Before she inspired everyone with her words, Cher got the room on their feet through her music. As she proves with each passing year that she doesn’t need to turn back time, Hudson came out to perform that stone-cold classic. She even channeled Cher’s iconic music video outfit with her look.
J-Hud came back later to accompany the icon after Cher hit the stage to make everyone “Believe.” They were back-to-back powerhouse performances of two of her biggest hits, proving that her music is as timeless as her message, and as Cher herself.
