Tuesday, December 10, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Billboards salute ageless Cher

Singer accepts award for four decades as performing artist

Oscar and Grammy Award-winner Cher shows off the Artist Achievement Award she received Monday night at the 2002 Billboard Music Awards show at the MGM Grand. AP Photo

Cher came to Las Vegas on Monday to accept a Billboard Music Award for having sung hit songs for four decades. So, naturally, jokes about her mysterious agelessness started before she arrived.

The wisecracks started in a back parking lot at the MGM, where hundreds of fans stood behind barricades and screamed at stars sparkling on a red carpet.

Among those who waited eight hours in the cold was a sassy 21-year-old makeup artist from Saint George, Utah. His name was Jojo. Just Jojo.

"Cher. Madonna. The pope. It's all about the one-name thing. More power," Jojo said about the wisdom of "Jojo."

Jojo waved a handmade sign. Red, white and blue glitter spelled, "CHER -- I LOVE YOU." Jojo wore designer jeans, a bone choker, and tacky hair gel with glue mixed in for firmness.

What would he say to Cher?

"I'd get some makeup tips, for sure. I'd ask her how the wigs stay on," Jojo said. "I'd say, 'When I'm 112, how do I make myself look 40?' I'd also ask what Jesus Christ was like. So, I'd get a brief history of the world from her."

A few hours later, Jojo's idol got her award. Cher -- whose current tour is subtitled, "Farewell" -- said that when critics talk about her age, or the supposed end of her career, she says, "Screw 'em."

Only, she didn't say "Screw 'em." She said the pow-sex word on the two-hour awards show as it was being broadcast live on the East Coast. (Fox-TV aired the show three hours later on the West Coast.)

In a way, Cher symbolized the Billboard Awards. Everything old was made to seem new again. Although there were performances by young pop singer Avril Lavigne and rapper Nelly, honors were also bestowed upon veterans Michael Jackson, Annie Lennox and Run-DMC.

But inside the Grand Garden Arena, fans grumbled when an announcer said neither Jackson nor Lennox was in the building. For weeks, Fox had promoted the show as including both.

Lennox accepted her award, for being a great risk-taker, in a prerecorded bit. Actor Chris Tucker honored Jackson for his album, "Thriller," which was released 20 years ago, during a satellite interview with show host and comedian Cedric the Entertainer.

Cedric asked Jackson about his old sidekick: "How's the monkey? Nobody's heard about the monkey in a while."

"He's in Chris Tucker's house," Jackson cracked.

A woman in the crowd looked incredulous when stars' absences were declared. She had traveled from Los Angeles to the MGM to celebrate her 30th birthday.

"The people you thought were going to be here are not here," Maribel Galindo said.

Big chunks of seating sections in the arena stayed empty, even though perhaps hundreds of people received free admission to fill empty seats.

One filler, David Marshall of Fresno, Calif., said seat-filling allowed him to network with "talent" and with music producers. Another filler, rapper King James, wore a pin-striped suit and flashed a CD of his. He looked snazzy enough to be on stage.

"Next year," he vowed, cooler than cool.

Two seat-fillers from Henderson, Melissa Johnson and Shelley Cree, both 18, waited in a filler line forever. But they laughed at people who spent $150 on tickets.

They were dressed very up.

"I'm dressed pretty normal," Johnson contended. She wore a glittery halter top and a rhinestone belt. "I'm here to see stars. I don't know about anybody else, but that's what I'm here for."

When all the young seat-fillers were still standing glammed-up in their forever line, a tourist couple from Baltimore sat nearby. The couple was "watchin' all the crazies" who wore hip-huggers, bell-bottoms, backless tops, belly shirts, and puffy hats that vaulted up like Jiffy Pop popcorn containers.

"They don't understand that the style they're wearing was in style in the '70s, when I was growing up," Gerard Pratt, 44, said. "They think it's all fantastic, but I've been wearing that stuff all my life. ... They're running out of ideas."