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While promoting her debut Christmas album in December, Cher threw down the gauntlet and declared she wouldn’t be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame now “if they gave me a million dollars.” Why the indignation? Because it’s an insult to humanity that she wasn’t invited to be inducted decades ago, thank you very much! (My words, not Cher’s.) Well, guess who just nominated Cher to be in their little ole club? Yep, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced their 2024 nominees, and they’re trying to right the wrong against Cher now, since they can’t turn back time:
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has announced the 15 nominees for its Class of 2024, including “Queen of Hip-Hop Soul” Mary J. Blige, Grammy winner Mariah Carey, and Cher, known as the “Goddess of Pop.”
Also among the contenders for the Rock Hall are Foreigner, Dave Matthews Band, Oasis, Lenny Kravits, Ozzy Osbourne, A Tribe Called Quest, Jane’s Addiction, Sinead O’Conner, Sade, Kool & The Gang, Peter Frampton and Eric B. Rakin.
This is the first time Carey, Cher, Sade, Foreigner, Frampton, Oasis, Kravitz, Kool & The Gang and the late O’Connor are on the ballot, according to USA Today.
But while many of the artists may be celebrating, the nomination isn’t exactly music to Cher’s ears.
Back in December, the pop diva, 77, slammed the Rock Hall for snubbing her for years.
“You know what, I wouldn’t be in it now if they gave me a million dollars. I’m not kidding you,” she admitted in an interview on the “Kelly Clarkson Show.”
“I’m never going to change my mind. They can just you-know-what themselves.”
Meanwhile, this week’s nominations mark the first time Osbourne will be considered as a solo artist; he was already inducted in 2006 as the frontman of Black Sabbath.
Other nominees have previously been nominated for the Rock Hall, but haven’t yet made the cut.
Blige was nominated in 2021, A Tribe Called Quest in 2022 and 2023, Jane’s Addiction in 2017 and Eric B. Rakin in 2012, per USA Today.
So how does Cher play this? Does she pull a Dolly Parton and respectfully decline the nomination (though Dolly later accepted), or does she remind the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame of her previous wishes for them to go fly a kite? As for the Hall of Fame, they’ve kind of called her bluff to see how much she really meant she would never change her mind. But Cher is indeed a goddess, so she can’t exactly make a wrong move here. She’s Cher, she makes the rules — just ask Paul Giamatti. While I personally think it would be spectacularly badass of her to reject the Hall of Fame entirely, that doesn’t mean I would think any less of her for bestowing benevolence upon them by accepting their overtures. I do have a request, though, that if Cher ends up being inducted and showing up to the ceremony, I hope she gives as effusive a comment as she did to The Guardian about how she ended up with her current partner. Something along the lines of, “I don’t know what happened, but I’m in the Hall now.”
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