Cher kicked off Saturday evening’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony by accepting her long-overdue induction whereas crediting her mom with inspiring her to by no means give up.

“It was easier getting divorced from two men than it was to get into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” she joked initially of her speech. “I want to thank my guardian David Geffen, because yeah, he wrote a letter and sent it to the directors and so.. ha ha here I am. So anyway thank you David, thank you for caring so much about me.”

She then acknowledged the self-reliance her mom instilled in her as a younger lady, whilst she struggled together with her college work. “[She taught me] If you’re down and you’re out, you get up again. And in my life I’ve been so down, like as my mother would say, lower than a snake’s belly, OK, that’s how down I’ve been. People have told me that I’m finished and that I was through, I have 10 minutes [left]. The one thing I got from my mom is that I never gave up.”

Prior to her induction, Cher kicked off the Rock Hall ceremony by becoming a member of pop star Dua Lipa for a efficiency of her 1998 hit “Believe.”

The actress Zendaya, carrying a daring Bob Mackie-style gown as a tribute to the honoree, began her induction speech by asking, “Where do I even begin? There is not one person in this room, in this country and pretty much in the whole world who doesn’t know who I’m here to honor tonight. So iconic, she only needs one name. …She does it all and may I add.. really fucking well.”

After Zendaya’s speech, Cher retook the stage to carry out her 1989 smash “If I Could Turn Back Time” with assist from Trans-Siberian Orchestra / Whitesnake guitarist Joel Hokestra.

Although Cher entered the Rock Hall on her first nomination, that nomination was many years overdue. The “Goddess of Pop” made her recording debut in 1965 and scored a No. 1 hit the identical 12 months with the Sonny & Cher ballad “I Got You Babe.” She’s gained a Grammy, an Emmy and an Oscar, and she obtain the Kennedy Center Honors in 2018.

Cher has not minced phrases about her disdain for the Rock Hall in the previous. The celebrity famous throughout a December 2023 look on The Kelly Clarkson present that she’s one of solely two acts to have earned No. 1 hits in seven totally different many years and but, the Hall nonetheless hadn’t acknowledged her achievements on the time.

“It took four of them to be one of me … [it’s] the Rolling Stones and me,” Cher mentioned. “And I’m not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. You know what, I wouldn’t be in it now if they gave me a million dollars. I’m not kidding you, I was about to say I’m not shitting you. I’m never changing my mind. They can just go you-know-what-themselves.”

Ozzy Osbourne Foreigner Join Cher for 2024 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class

Ozzy Osbourne, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, the Dave Matthews Band, Mary J. Blige, A Tribe Called Quest and Kool & the Gang be part of Cher as inductees within the performer class at this 12 months’s Rock Hall induction. MC5, Jimmy Buffett, Dionne Warwick and Norman Whitfield will obtain the Musical Excellence award.