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Kenneth Blake of Tucson, Ariz., preforms as Cher on Saturday during the Cher Convention at the Riviera. Photo by Craig L. Moran. Amy Hohimer of Chicago performs as Cher on Saturday at the Riviera. Photo by Craig L. Moran.

Monday, July 15, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Cher fans turn out to honor their favorite singer

Devotees pack the Riviera to pay homage to star

Cher has her share of serious fans who buy her music, watch her movies and pay to see her concerts.

But Daniel Seilman took fan devotion to a new level when he traveled more than 5,000 miles from Estonia to Las Vegas for the sole purpose of hanging out with other Cher fans.

He knew the pop star wouldn't be at the Cher Convention at the Riviera on Friday and Saturday. But Seilman, 21, also knew 1,000 other people devoted to her, including fans and Cher impersonators, would be there. So he came because, in Estonia, a small country bordering Finland and Sweden, no one else understands Seilman's dedication to Cher.

"I like Cher. It's that simple. I'm a super huge fan," Seilman said of the reason he attended the convention. "My country only has about 1 1/2 million people. If there were other Estonians who like Cher as much as I do, I would know about it, wouldn't I?"

On his first trip to the United States, Seilman talked with other fans about their favorite Cher songs, watched impersonators do their version of the entertainer and cheered average people with average voices while they became their idol for three minutes during a karaoke session.

It was the second gathering of these hard-core fans, the first in Chicago two years ago. The convention started like many other such gatherings, said one of the organizers, Jody Cantwell. A group of fans met through the Internet.

They got together to celebrate their complete devotion to Cher. These fans don't like Cher just because they think her music is cool. No, their attachment is something deeper, more personal. It's the essence of Cher they identify with, what they see as her strength and independence, which they say has helped her persevere in the pop world for almost four decades.

"Everybody has always been against her, saying her career is over, but she just keeps coming back again and again," said Chicago fan James Heath. "I think at some point everybody can relate to that. She just doesn't care what other people say or think."

These fans love her enough to take up causes she champions, such as the Children's Craniofacial Association. Cher became involved in raising awareness and support for the syndrome after doing the movie "Mask," which was about a boy with a craniofacial deformity.

The convention may have started as a gathering of hard-core fans, but it has become a serious charity event raising money for a syndrome that many don't understand, Cantwell said.

An auction of 40 pieces of Cher memorabilia raised an estimated $20,000 for the association, Cantwell said. Through auctions at the two conventions and through the Internet, this core group of Cher fans has raised more than $40,000 for the cause in two years, Cantwell said.

One Arizona fan, Robyn Fisher, spent about $10,000 on auctioned items, including $4,400 for a fur coat autographed and donated by Cher.

"It's for the kids. That's why we're here," Fisher said.

Not everyone could afford to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on Cher memorabilia, so they stood back and basked in the warmth of camaraderie.

"We don't have the chance to meet other fans who are like us. Here it seems like everyone is a big family," Italian Roberta Morucci said through an interpreter.

Though she speaks only a few words of English, Morucci came to Las Vegas from Rome to feel closer to Cher. The 30-year-old painter has met her idol three times, which is considered the holy grail among these fans.

It was here, so far away from Rome, that she said she felt most at home, around people who were as crazy about the pop icon as she.

"We love her voice, the way she acts, everything about her," Morucci said. "She's beautiful on the inside, really very genuine."

Morucci said she loved the Cher impersonators and was impressed that, even though most of them were men dressed in drag, they looked so much like her idol. Many of the impersonators, like Kenneth Blake from Arizona, volunteered their services to entertain the fans.

"We knew they existed," Morucci said of the impersonators. She had never seen one before Friday. "It's weird but they do Cher so great. We love them. One guy really looked like Cher."

Though the convention raises money for a good cause, nonbelievers don't always understand why fans love Cher so much that they would attend a convention honoring her, says local resident Brian Comfort.

"You tell people you went to a Cher convention and they go `What's that?' " Comfort said. "They think we're obsessed. But it's fun and it's for charity. When you feel a special connection with someone like Cher it's just a natural thing to want to come to a convention to be around others like you. You feel like you're not alone."