I checked Cher’s merch page and unfortunately there is not yet a Cher snow globe available. But wouldn’t that be swell?

Music

Since I’ve been working on my own Cher rabbit holes (with books and dolls), I’ve been delayed in posting the latest Cher news. And there has been quite a lot of it, the biggest of which maybe happened yesterday.

I had no idea when I woke up Sunday morning that I’d be greeted with news of new music that very day. Cher completely surprised us with a  new  Christmas single!

Some fans, me included, worried that after months of really aggressively fake Cher news on Facebook, that this too was fake news. In fact, I spent the better part of Sunday morning lying in bed trying to find confirmation on this story. I didn’t even think to go to straight to Cher’s YouTubes. Eventually I just had to rely on the reliable sources of Cher Universe and Cher Brazil. They get the scoops, those young whippersnappers.

I spoke with another Cher scholar and we wondered is this was actually a 2025 recording? There has been no context around this release (interviews, advanced press) and so it’s hard to know. Or is this an outtake of the 2023 Christmas album? Will it be resold and repackaged into the old album to tease fans into buying it once again? The song is heavy on auto-tune, which feels like Cher’s continued middle-finger into the face of auto-tunes detractors, but its also not new.

On the other hand, the lyrics speak to the from-ennui-to-anguish her fans may be dealing with in 2025 in a sort of general way that covers all of our possible scenarios.

I always appreciate the Cher-as-Mother-Figure songs. Her Cheer-Up-Kid gestures always get me. This could be because Sonny & Cher were my fantasy parents. But songs like “Chiquitita” and “Stop Crying Your Heart Out” I find very comforting. This is another song in that category. It’s been quite another rough year from this end (ending with a roof leak among other dramas), rougher probably because it’s also been rough for all my friends too.

Sometimes I feel like I’m losing my resistance and elasticity. (Don’t tell my non-Cher mother. She’s got enough to worry about.) But songs like this are very appreciated from Cher’s own brand of public surrogate motherhood.

This is also a good time to visit the Cher Scholar Christmas Page.

The new song also explains why Cher will be on Saturday Night Live on Saturday December 20, their year-end Christmas show. She’s a musical guest alongside Arianna Grande, but hopefully she’ll also appear in some of the skits. Would a duet be too much?

Let’s touch base next year on how all that turns out.

A Grammy Salute to Cyndi Lauper aired on CBS on 5 October. It was a great special all around with some fabulous and unexpected duets. Cher came out for the finale of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” in a visual tribute to Yayoi Kusama which I love, love, loved!

Last week, Cher also received another victory against Mary Bono but this time at the federal level. Bono plans to appeal all the way to the top! (Just wow. Will the Supreme Court eventually take on this case someday? Let’s hope not.)

Cher Books

CBS Mornings (which has confusingly rebranded since I last looked from the previous title of CBS This Morning) had Cher on the show in November to talk about the paperback version of her Memoir just out. There is an appended story at the end of the paperback version, (to get us to all buy that again) about Sonny and Cher at Martoni’s Restaurant, a very funny one but not the “Laugh In” story that was left out of the hardback version, which is significant I think. Did that even happen at all?

Cher’s Memoir part two was postponed earlier this year until spring of  2026 and now reports are saying it’s furtherly postponed until fall of 2026, which will be two years after part one came out. (That’s the way it is and you’ll like it!)

Anyway, 2025 was sort of an embarrassment of riches on the Cher book front. In another post (this week) I’ll talk about Annie Zaleski’s picture bio and Natalie Hammond’s style guide.

But this week, the children’s book on Cher (from the Little Golden Book people) came out, written by Candice Ransom and  illustrated by Laura Catrinella. It’s so brief, it didn’t have the chance to print any egregious errors. Which is nice.

Some of the best drawings include:

And then there’s this picture. I’m sure many Cher fans will fight me on this one but that is definitely me in the lower left-hand corner of this picture. That’s even my facial expression at Cher concerts!

Outings 

Cher attended the Swarovski Masters of Lighting Opening Celebration in Los Angeles with Alexander Edwards on 28 October. “On the day, Cher donned a black see-through bodysuit paired with a fur crop jacket and wide pants adorned with chain decorations on the sides, exuding her unique charisma. Her signature black wavy hair and glamorous jewelry highlighted her presence as the ‘ageless diva.'” (chosun.com)

Cher was also presented with a Bambi Legende Award in Germany on 13 November.

Cher was introduced around her iconic status and humanity. In her speech Cher said she was proud to be there and felt she had a special relationship with Germany, where people seemed to always been interested in her during her career’s low ebbs. She talked about her inability to save Billy the Elephant from the L.A. Zoo. She kept saying, “I’m just a singer; I can’t do anything.” But then after telling the successful Kavaan elephant story she ended with, “I’m not just a pretty face, am I?”

Movies

Someone reached out to me from Peru about the movie Suspect.

A man named Anthony told me he had recently watched the movie on VHS and “found it very entertaining,  full of suspense and interesting moments. For example, the scene in the library” and yes that scene was very delectable!

Anthony said he searched the internet for reviews and found my Cher Zine review “full of details and very interesting observations.”

He said he was “grateful to be able to read it and that there are unique opinions” and he hoped I could read the email “and feel grateful for filling the world with culture.”

I was indeed very grateful he reached out to me. Suspect is a bit underrated as it includes a very bookish character against Cher-type and I think she does a fine job in it alongside a young Liam Neeson.

More About Me

So my friend in San Francisco and I finished reading Healing The Child Within by Charles L. Whitfield (which Cher recommends in her book Forever Fit) and we started on the comparatively very large workbook.

Oy vey! It has been a shocking experience because when I started reading the book, it felt so dated, so 80s. My friend and I have read so many other self-help books between when this one was published and now. And it seemed very substance-abuse related, which was not my family history, (in my childhood anyway). But then it turns out the childhoods explored encapsulated many more kinds of dysfunction under “also ran” where I could find my little self. The book is full of tables and charts and I could see exactly where my therapy in Los Angeles stalled when I left to move to New Mexico. I never got to core issues! Or letting the feelings go!!

So I’ll be restarting therapy next year when my insurance is sorted out. My friend and I are now deep into documenting our true and public selves. Many surprising revelations for us, I must say.

I’ll be making an unexpected visit to Cleveland next weekend so I wasn’t going to finish putting up my Christmas trees. But then I did it anyway just to cheer myself up.