Cher kicks of ABBA album promotion with first cover
Cher is about to release her first album in five years after returning in 2013 with her 25th record Closer To The Truth. The legendary pop star did her first major acting job since 2010 (when she starred in Burlesque together with Christina Aguilera) in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, for which she recorded the songs ‘Super Trouper’ and ‘Fernando’. Being a part of this ABBA musical inspired her to record an album completely filled with covers of songs by the iconic Swedish band. Today she finally kicks off promotion with her cover of ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)’.
Listening to Cher’s version of ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)’ it becomes clear that she mostly stayed true to the original. Sure, her rendition does not sound like it was recorded in 1979, but it wasn’t made into a 2018 sounding version either. Cher gave her version a bit more beat, used the bassline from Madonna’s ‘Hung Up’ (which obviously sampled said Abba song) and threw in some of the extreme autotune effects that made her hit ‘Believe’ so game changing. Now covering ABBA is always a risky business (ask the A*Teens) and although this is a well produced effort with larger than life vocals by the one and only Cher, the one question remains: could we have done without this version in 2018? The charts could (and probably will), but I can already see this become an absolute classic in pop and disco oriented gay clubs. I will for sure dance my butt off if I hear it on a night out!