Only Cher Could Turn a Mechanical Bull Into Full Cabaret Glamour
Cher is not only a pioneer and one of thee greatest entertainers in show-business history. Apparently, she is also a professional mechanical bull rider.
Okay, maybe not technically professional. But for this week’s Saturday Night Is for the Babes, technicalities are not invited.
We’re heading back to 1981, when Cher turned her performance of “When Will I Be Loved” at Caesars Palace into a rhinestone-covered Western fantasy complete with cowboys, choreography and one extremely committed mechanical bull.
Discover More
Cher Being Cher
Mechanical bulls, Vegas glamour and a performer who has never understood the meaning of doing anything halfway. Revisit the era when Cher made Caesars Palace her playground.
Some links may be affiliate links. INYIM may earn from qualifying purchases.
Cher’s Caesars Show Was Never Going to Be Subtle
The performance came from A Celebration at Caesars, Cher’s first concert residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The production played the Circus Maximus Showroom and mixed cabaret, pop, rock, disco, comedy and enough costume changes to make restraint feel like somebody else’s problem.
And “When Will I Be Loved” was exactly the kind of number that showed what the production was about. Cher took the Everly Brothers song — later made into a major hit by Linda Ronstadt — and turned it into her own cheeky Vegas playground.
The arrangement arrives with dancers, coordinated Western choreography and Cher working the stage before eventually climbing aboard the mechanical bull. Because if you are Cher in 1981 and there is a mechanical bull sitting around backstage, what exactly are you supposed to do — ignore it?
Absolutely not.
The Mechanical Bull Even Had a Name
The bull was not some random prop wheeled out for one night. Accounts of Cher’s late-1970s and early-1980s stage production identify the elaborate mechanical bull as “El Toro.” The show was famous for its theatrical excess, with large-scale props, dancers and rapid-fire costume changes helping blur the line between concert, nightclub revue and full Cher variety spectacular.
At one point during “When Will I Be Loved,” Cher is joined on the bull by one of the cowboys, taking the already campy production straight into Saturday-night gold.
And this is exactly why the woman has remained thee woman for more than six decades. Cher has never needed permission to make something bigger, stranger, sexier or more theatrical. She simply gets on the bull.
More Cher Bull Business From Caesars Palace
More moments from Cher’s Western-themed “When Will I Be Loved” number during A Celebration at Caesars.
Saturday night assignment: find somebody who approaches the weekend with the same confidence Cher brought to a mechanical bull at Caesars Palace.
Watch Cher Perform “When Will I Be Loved” at Caesars Palace in 1981
Cher’s official YouTube channel revisits the Circus Maximus Showroom performance from A Celebration at Caesars, mechanical bull and all.
Watch INYIM’s Cher Mechanical Bull Throwback
Our Saturday Night Is for the Babes cut brings the vintage Cher bull business straight to the scroll.
Sources: Cher Official Artist Channel / YouTube; Paley Center for Media; Cher Scholar.
