Cher Honored by Meryl Streep with the Icon Award at the iHeartRadio Music Awards

Back in 1965, I was a 14-year-old freshman in high school in Bernardsville, New Jersey. And I walked two miles to school every day and back then we didn't have earbuds or phones or earphones or Walkman or anything. We just had the songs that we carried in our heads and our footsteps made the beats that we walked to. And the song that I carried in my head in 1965 was the number one hit and it was I Got You Baby. And the girl who sang on that record, I found out, Cher. She was 17 years old, which I thought was really old. She could have been a senior. And now we both are seniors. Zoom ahead to this past Christmas, okay? That girl, Cher, has another number one hit. DJ play a Christmas song for me and she's 77 years old and that doesn't actually feel that old to me now. Do you know that Cher has had a number one record in every one of the last seven decades? She's the only woman in US history to have done that. So what does it take to have those kind of legs, right? We'd all wanna know. It's not 15 minutes of fame anymore. You're lucky if you get seven seconds of somebody's fractured attention, nevermind seven decades. It takes talent, yeah. But more than that, I think it takes heart. When I think of Cher, I think of her giant heart, how open it is, how battered it is, and how strong it is, and how she leads with her heart in everything she does, in her acting, her singing, her dancing, her dressing. She just puts it all out there. And it's brought her lots of prestigious awards, but it's also pulled her to work on behalf of our veterans and for LGBTQ rights and for many other causes. I first met her 40 years ago when we made a film about an activist called Silkwood. And in the movie, we held on to each other and we rocked on a porch swing on a little house in Sherman, Texas, on an October night. And I sang her a lullaby. But all I could think of is we were going back and forth, back and forth. I got you, babe. I got you, babe. I got her. Backstage. Let's take a look at this year's iHeartRadio icon, my friend Cher. The Sunny and Cher show, it was very fun and a lot easier. It was a lot more difficult when I did my own show. We share something in common by having the same type of career with husband manager and then going out on our own. She was an icon then, and she has remained an icon. I always think of myself as a bumper car and when I hit the wall, I would back up and I would go in another direction. I got into acting because I couldn't get a job singing. I like playing regular people so that other people don't feel like they're alone in the world having hardships that can't be overcome. I care about women's rights. We have had to fight for everything we've gotten, and it's not fair. She's someone that I've always looked up to. I've always loved her attitude and how strong she is. She has a lot of opinions. She wore everything as if it were jeans and a t-shirt. Some people are just born to be goddesses. She's an icon. I just think she's incredible and broke down so many barriers. I want to do art that impresses people and makes them feel something and also makes you feel like this is what I was put here to do. If you knew me, you would know that I just wrote my speech while I was getting my eyelashes on. But, Meryl, I want to thank you and Jennifer. Okay, so before I start, there are people probably someplace that have said, doesn't more than one pair of pants. I've had these pants for 40 years, and I thought we should come here and accept this award together. So first of all, I feel really blessed and lucky with this award, and I feel lucky to have people that have stayed with me for all these years. Most of you weren't born, but a lot of people have. So when I was young, there was nothing about me that yelled Cher. So it was about having a dream, and I got this dream when I was five years old. I went to see, well, first I went to see Dumbo and asked my mom if I could be him, and my mom said, no, he's a cartoon. And then I saw Cinderella and I thought, yes. And so I said, mom, can I be Cinderella? And she said, maybe someday. So anyway, 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 cannot believe it. Dropped by my record companies and couldn't get a job, and at that time, I went to Las Vegas, which they called the Elephant's Graveyard, and I had a huge show, lots of people, bungees, all that, and they just said, oh God, she's so over. But I never gave up my dream, and standing on this stage, I love standing on the stage, and this is kind of my dream. And I stand there, and the music plays, and all of a sudden, out of my body comes this voice, and people seem to like it. So I'm telling you that my experience is, have a dream, and then don't give it up no matter what happens, because I know from my own experience that if you have a dream and you stick with it, you will have a wonderful life, and it probably will come true. Thank my managers, Roger and Lindsay, and that's it for me, but thank you.