When you’re Cher, you shouldn’t have to share icon status on your album release day.
But unbeknownst to the legendary diva, a little band called the Rolling Stones was also releasing their new album, “Hackney Diamonds,” on Friday — the same day that she was dropping her first holiday LP, “Christmas.”
“You know, I met them the first time they ever came to America,” the artist born Cherilyn Sarkisian — who was married to her late singing partner Sonny Bono at the time — told The Post.
“They wanted to stay at our house, and we only had a living room and a bedroom, and we went, ‘You know, we can’t do it.’”
Six decades later, Cher is as much of a living legend as the Stones. And in a storied career as a Grammy-winning singer and an Oscar-decorated actress, she’s making new moves with her first holiday album, “Christmas,” out Friday.
Defying all expectations, she’s still going more than “Strong Enough” — as she vowed 25 years ago — at 77.
“I mean, it’s crazy — and it doesn’t make any sense to me whatsoever,” said Cher, who made her debut with “Where Do You Go” in 1965. “I have no idea why I’m here now. I’m some sort of a freak. I have no idea why I still have my voice.”
Cher’s distinctly deep voice is applied to holiday fare for the first time on “Christmas,” which includes the original song “DJ Play a Christmas Song,” as well as seasonal chestnuts such as “Run Rudolph Run” and “Santa Baby.”
Darlene Love, the original Queen of Christmas — sorry, Mariah — even joins in the festivities for a new version of “Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home),” which Love originally released as a Phil Spector-produced holiday bop in 1963.
“I did the background [vocals] on that song when I was 17,” said Cher. “I wouldn’t have done it without her because, in my mind, that would be so disrespectful. We hadn’t talked in a thousand years, but when I called her it was like I talked to her yesterday. And it was a no-brainer.”
Being the boss lady that she is, Cher also recruited another fierce female artist — Cyndi Lauper — for “Put a Little Holiday in Your Heart.”
“Cyndi and I have been friends for a long time — we were on the road together for a long, long time,” she said, noting the progress that has been made for women of their generation in the music business.
“When I was with Sonny, I didn’t have choices. And now I’m glad that women just can do what they want to do and fulfill their expression.”
And Cher got a boo boost from her boyfriend, Alexander “AE” Edwards, who, at 37, is 40 years younger. The producer helped bring some hip-hop flavor to “Christmas” with rapper Tyga on “Drop Top Sleigh Ride.”
“Alexander produced that, and I thought that he had gotten T to be on it by twisting his arm,” she said. “But then he said, ‘No, I wanted to do it!’”
”We both crossed into a place that no one would have thought we would have been in together.”
Cher and her younger man met at Paris Fashion Week in September 2022.
“It was really, really weird, because I wasn’t looking for it really,” she said. “And we met because my friend kept nudging me to go ask him about his teeth. So I’m looking at this beautiful guy with white hair, tatted up and with these teeth. And so I said, ‘Dude, I like your grill.’ ”
Cher ended up scoring in a May-December romance just like she won at the Oscars 35 years ago, taking home the Best Actress trophy for “Moonstruck.”
“We were late as usual, and we were running down the street,” she recalled of that momentous night in April 1988.
“And I didn’t have a speech because I was nominated once before [for 1984’s ‘Silkwood’], and I didn’t win. So when Paul Newman opened the envelope, and he took a breath, I just relaxed because I thought, ‘You know, you don’t need a breath to say Cher.’ And then he said it, and I kind of lost my hearing after that.”
But as the “Believe” singer looks to doing more acting while working on yet another album, she knows her lane when it comes to taking on Mariah Carey for Christmas queendom.
“I’m not gonna take over that spot,” she said. “I’m kind of out of my league there.”
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