Cher was recording her forthcoming Christmas album in July, when she saw the internet’s reaction to her new line of gelato, Cherlato. People were coming up with punny flavor names such as If I Could Turn Back Lime. The iconic singer and actress and her team found it hilarious.
“I mean, I, I like humor,” Cher tells Yahoo Entertainment.
The truth, though, is that she’s serious about the new dessert, which she created with New Zealand gelato artist Gianpaolo “Giapo” Grazioli, and which is so far available only by a food truck in Los Angeles.
“I’m very, very involved” says Cher, who even came up with some of the flavors herself. “I’ve been making my Christmas album, and I was in London, so they’ve put up a few that I didn’t have time to taste. But usually, I’m the last word.”
The singer said she’s been a fan of frozen treats since she was a little girl.
“There was a Good Humor truck that used to come down our block… I would like, run to my mom, go, mom, please, I need a dime or 15 cents, or whatever it was. And get either a popsicle, which I don’t know why I was wasting my time with that or just the vanilla dipped in dark chocolate, which was really one of my favorites. And there was another one. It was Cherry Coconut outside and vanilla inside. Oh, it was delish!”
The newest player in the gelato game spoke to Yahoo Entertainment about both her new product and her new music. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
1. Are there plans to expand Cherlato so more people can find it?
“We didn’t expect people to like it so much. So now we’re scrambling, we’re gonna do pop-ups, and we’re gonna have more trucks, and then we’re gonna see what happens. I mean, we have different kinds of people who want to invest and that’s all well and good, but I want to do this first part by myself. I’m really invested in it, and it’s a hard project.
“We can only have, I think it’s five flavors, on that truck. It’s only big enough [for that], but we’ve got a million flavors. We’ve really got so many flavors and so many really interesting ones.”
Also interesting is that any flavor can be served in a gold cone that leaves behind a coat of gold lipstick.
“If that isn’t Cher, I don’t know what it is,” she says before laughing.
2. Next month is the 25th anniversary of your Believe album, which was huge. What does that album mean to you?
“It’s hard to wrap my mind around that, that it’s that long ago. And it was one of my favorites… I mean, I have to say ‘Believe’ is one of my favorite songs, just because… we invented the sound, and now everybody uses it constantly. But we invented that sound out of desperation, because the verses were just not good. And my producer and I got into a fight, and he kept saying, ‘Cher, you gotta sing it better.’ And finally I just said, ‘You know, if you want it better, get someone else.’ And I walked out. We got along great, too. So that was kind of strange.”
Cher explained that producer Mark Taylor eventually found a pitch machine — “one of the first ones” — although he wasn’t sure if she’d like it. She hadn’t heard of it before, but quickly became acquainted.
“I loved it,” she says, “because you couldn’t tell it was me in the beginning, which was like fabulous.”
3. You’ve said that the Christmas album you’re working on is “not your mother’s Christmas album.” What did you mean by that?
“I mean, there’s no ‘Silent Night’ and there’s no ‘Frosty the Snowman.’ It’s a Cher album that has a Christmas theme, but it’s… it’s rock and roll, it’s disco, it’s everything. And I’ve got great people on it with me, and I’ve never had anybody on my record.”
This time, the Moonstruck star will be joined by Stevie Wonder, Darlene Love, Michael Bublé, Tyga and Cyndi Lauper.
She expects to drop a new Cherlato flavor to commemorate it when it comes out.
“Absolutely,” Cher says. “I don’t know what it’ll be, but we’re going to have one for sure.”
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