Cher’s music career spans nearly 60 years, but the legendary singer and actress has never released a holiday album.
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That will change on October 20 with the arrival of Christmas, a 13-track collection that features nine covers and four originals, and includes guest appearances by Stevie Wonder, Cyndi Lauper, Darlene Love, Michael Bublé and rapper Tyga.
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Cher told Billboard in an exclusive interview that she “had no intention” of making a holiday album, but when her label, Warner Records, suggested she consider doing one, she agreed, but only if she could do it on her own terms.
“I said if I can do my version I’ll do it, and they were very pleasant,” she recalled, adding, “Everybody’s gotten ‘Santa Claus Is Coming to Town’ and ‘Jingle Bells’ and all that. I just said to them, ‘There will be Christmas songs and they’ll be appropriate, but I want to do what I feel.’”
The album’s lead track, an Auto-Tune-drenched original tune “DJ Play a Christmas Song,” was released as an advance single on Friday, October 6. The song is one of three originals co-written by Sarah Hudson, daughter of veteran songwriter Mark Hudson, along with “Angels in the Snow” and “Drop Top Sleigh Ride,” the latter of which features a rap by Tyga.
“I’ve known [Sarah’s] father … for a million years,” Cher said. “I didn’t even know she’s a writer. I’ve known her since she was three of four years old, so that was great for me. I’m really thrilled about that.”
Wonder appears on “What Christmas Means to Me,” a song he released his own version of in 1967, Bublé duets with Cher on a rendition of his 2005 hit, “Home,” and Lauper and Cher team up on a cover of “Put a Little Holiday in Your Heart.”
The album also includes a version of Love’s 1963 girl-group classic “Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home),” the original of which featured Cher made her recording debut singing backing vocals.
Love and Cher recorded their vocals at separate sessions, and Love told Billboard that she was very impressed by how well her old friend still sings.
“There are parts in the song when [we] sing together and I’m hitting high notes and she goes right there with me,” she recalled. “Cher’s voice has not changed in the smallest bit, it is still so powerful. I think everybody is going to be shocked and surprised because it really came out fantastic.”
Besides the Christmas album, Cher will be releasing a deluxe 25th anniversary of her of hit 1998 album Believe, on November 3. Cher also told Billboard that she won’t be doing any concerts in support of either release because she has other plans, revealing, “I have another album to do right after this.”
Christmas Track Listing:
- DJ Play a Christmas Song
- What Christmas Means to Me (with Stevie Wonder)
- Run Rudolph Run
- Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home) (with Darlene Love)
- Angels in the Snow
- Home (with Michael Bublé)
- Drop Top Sleigh Ride (with Tyga)
- Please Come Home for Christmas
- I Like Christmas
- Christmas Ain’t Christmas Without You
- Santa Baby
- Put a Little Holiday in Your Heart (with Cyndi Lauper)
- This Will Be Our Year
