Cher's Final Concert

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Cher bids adieu at giant Toronto Halloween bash
POSTED AT 9:15 AM EST Sunday, Nov. 2, 2003


Toronto ? It's fitting that Cher, a queen of transformation, would choose Halloween to pack up her seemingly bottomless trunk of dresses, boas and wigs.

A night typically reserved for goblins and ghosts took on a magical flare as the diva transformed herself countless times during a 90-minute musical bonanza.

The show, the grand finale of the Living Proof Farewell Tour, opened with a montage of Cher clips and album covers on four jumbo screens. The diva finally descended on a chandelier wearing a sparkly witch's robe and hat. Underneath she wore a sheer body suit with an itsy-bitsy red spider barely covering one breast.

She performed a dance version of U2's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For accompanied by a five-piece band.

She then launched into Song For the Lonely while seven dancers did cartwheels and flips across the two-tiered stage.

"I guess we're all brothers and sisters under the skin, under the drag," she told the cheering crowd.

"Tonight is our 200th show. Our first show was in Toronto and our last show is in Toronto.-.-. I thought I better leave you guys with something fabulous," said the 57-year-old singer and actor wearing a floor-length red jacket and carrying a whip.

The 25,000-strong audience responded with a resounding "boo."

The singer promises to continue recording music but Friday vowed not to mount another goodbye party.

"It's better to go when you can do stuff .-.-. this isn't one of those bullshit farewell things," she said.

After more banter with the crowd ? during which she said she'd raised the bar for the next generation of divas like "J.Lo and Britney" trying to follow in her footsteps ? she returned riding a mechanical elephant to sing All Or Nothing.

From there the concert turned into an over-the-top musical extravaganza. Cher confidently belted hit after hit from past to present including I Found Someone, Bang, Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down), the disco hit Take Me Home, Strong Enough and the love theme from the film Chances Are, After All.

Between her numerous costume changes ? nearly one per song ? Cirque du Soleil-like dancers performed acrobatic tricks from a ropes and rings hanging from above the stage. At other times video clips highlighted her career in music, film and TV. They served as an education in Cher-iology for the already converted crowd.

She didn't forget her earliest days in the business, when she rose to fame with then-husband Sonny Bono. A video montage of the duo performing I Got You Babe played before the singer re-appeared wearing bell bottoms and straight black hair like she did at the start of her career.

She then sang a medley of All I Really Want To Do, the Bob Dylan cover that gave Cher her first No. 1 hit, Half-Breed and Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves.

The crowd was a sea of cowboys, sailors, angels, devils, Indians and other Halloween getups. Of course, hundreds paid tribute to their icon impersonating nearly every phase of a career that spans over 40 years. Men and women were dressed in everything from beaded bras and glittery tops to animal print jackets and feathery boas in every colour imaginable. One brave soul even managed to pull off her sexy peekaboo thong outfit she wore in her If I Could Turn Back Time music video.

That made the evening extra special for Cher fanatics like Rory Moy, who like most ticket holders seemed hypnotized by the disco-themed bash.

Clad in a little black dress, long black wig and fake eyelashes, the Toronto hairdresser tried to emulate the diva's outfit from the CD single of the hit song Believe.

"I'm on cloud nine," he said beaming. "Just to be here I get a natural high."

Moy said he's totally impressed by Cher's career, one of the few remaining musical holdovers from the 1960s.

"She's someone who will not give up,"he said. "She's very courageous."

The Village People, Sister Slegde and Thelma Houston opened the disco-themed show.

The now six-member Village People crew had fans who packed the SkyDome tent on their feet clapping along and, of course, gesturing madly during their famed YMCA club anthem.

The tour has been circulating North America for 18 months.