DESPITE selling 100million records and being one of the most successful singers ever, CHER has one big regret – over mega-hit Believe.
More than two decades after releasing the song — which spent seven weeks at No1 — the singer says she was so worried about rocking the boat that she didn’t dare to ask for a writing credit.
The error means she has lost out on hundreds of thousands of pounds after the 1998 track sold more than 11million copies.
To make matters worse, recording the song was so stressful that she stormed out of one session after being told her vocals weren’t up to scratch,
Cher said: “You can’t even imagine — about 30 people wrote on it. And I was so stupid. I didn’t ask. I didn’t even get a writer’s credit.
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“I wrote, ‘I’ve had time to think it through, and maybe I’m too good for you’.
“It sold 11million copies. I could have got a lot of money.”
It’s safe to say, though, Cher hasn’t done too badly since — she is worth an estimated £320million.
The star can be heard this week on Radio 2’s Tracks Of My Years with Vernon Kay, where she tells the host about how fraught recording sessions were for the song. Laughing, she says: “The verse was so bad
I couldn’t make it good.
“We — the songwriters and I — got into a big fight over it. I walked out after they said I had to sing it better.
‘I want it to be joyous’
“Then in the morning I said ‘What, [use] a vocoder?’ and they said, ‘No, you’ve got to do it at the time [live]’.”
But after the track was digitally tinkered with, she fell in love with it and the rest is music history.
“My favourite thing was that you didn’t know it was my voice at the beginning,” she adds.
Cher’s latest project is her debut festive album — simply titled Christmas — which includes her first original music since 2013.
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The decision has sparked speculation that self-declared Queen of Christmas Mariah Carey is “furious”, but Cher insists she doesn’t want to steal her crown.
She said: “I don’t want people to think of me and Christmas as one with this album.
“What I wanted to do was make an album that would make people feel happy,
“I wanted it to be joyous. I just wanted to pick songs that even if it doesn’t go together, it makes you feel better.”
Cher, who has never shied away from a public spat, says of the infamous diva: “Mariah is a great vocalist.
“She can do amazing things with her voice. It’s unbelievable.
“All I Want For Christmas is on my playlist.
“When you hear what she can do with her voice . . . it’s such a thrill to hear someone who sings so well.”
Naomi's a rare gem
NAOMI Campbell was the lady in red at the premier of The Absence Of Eden over the weekend.
The supermodel jetted to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia for the star-studded Red Sea International Film Festival, where she stepped out in a fitting splash of colour.
And she proved she still had her catwalk strut as she modelled the jewelled gown and its dramatic flowing cape.
The Absence Of Eden stars Guardians Of The Galaxy’s Zoe Saldana and Tron: Legacy actor Garrett Hedlund, who were also at the screening.
Emily goes with the flow
OPPENHEIMER co-stars Florence Pugh and Emily Blunt hugged as they were reunited at a special screening of the hit summer movie.
The event, at London’s Princess Anne Theatre, celebrated the biopic about US scientist, J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role developing the atomic bomb.
His leftie firebrand wife Kitty is played by Emily, and his psychiatrist ex by Florence.
They were joined at the bash by lead actor Cillian Murphy.
Rick: I didn't plan on making return
IT’S been an unlikely comeback – and no one is more surprised by Rick Astley's return than the man himself.
The Never Gonna Give You Up singer didn’t think he would be performing at all, let alone releasing new music.
This year has seen him put out his ninth album, Are We There Yet?, which peaked at No2.
He also played the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury.
But with refreshing honesty, Rick says despite loving his career, it left him “burnt out” and needing therapy.
He said: “Nothing in my life [before] was about being a real person – and unlike being a human and an adult, it was just about nonsense. Lovely nonsense that I’m unbelievably grateful for, but nonsense – I was just burnt out.
“I didn’t have anything left in me. And I was a dad, and I thought, ‘This is not good. I need to have something left in me to be a parent’.”
He added: “I think the 15 years or so – whatever it was that I didn’t do – it definitely refilled my batteries. I never thought I’d do it again. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, I’m just waiting. It was like, ‘I’m done’.
“With most people, pop careers are pretty short, and you can either gracefully walk out of the back door or you get thrown out. I chose the better option, which is like. ‘I’ll just sort of shuffle off while no one cares’.”
No more BoJo digs from Tom
HE used his 2022 track No10 to blast Boris Johnson but Tom Walker promises his upcoming second album, I Am, will not be politically charged.
Asked if his label Relentless Records had warned him to keep away from controversial topics, Tom told me: “I’ve actually not been told to rein it in. They’ve been really good and just left me to craft songs that I believe in.
“Yeah, I have said some mildly controversial things but not that often.
“But I Am just represents me. It’s not really diving into any of that stuff. I’m just trying to make the best work that I can that is better than the last. To obsess over streaming numbers and figures isn’t good for anyone.”
Tom’s debut album What A Time To Be Alive hit the top spot when it was released in 2019, so expectations are just as high this time around.
