Believe is the twenty-second studio album by American singer and actress Cher, released on October 22, 1998, by WEA and Warner Bros. Records. Following the commercial disappointment of her previous studio album It's a Man's World (1995), her record company encouraged her to record a dance-oriented album, in order to move into a more mainstream sound. Cher started working on the album in the spring of 1998 with British producers Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling at the Dreamhouse Studios in London. The album was dedicated to her former husband Sonny Bono, who had died earlier that year.
The album was dedicated to musician Sonny Bono, Cher's former husband and musical partner, who had died on January 5, 1998, in a skiing accident.
Cher performing "Believe" on the WKTU's "Miracle on 34th Street" show in New York City on December 11, 1998.
Cher performing the album's lead single "Believe" on the Dressed to Kill Tour in 2014
Cher is an American singer, actress and television personality. Often referred to by the media as the "Goddess of Pop", she has been described as embodying female autonomy in a male-dominated industry. She is known for her distinctive contralto singing voice, for having worked in numerous areas of entertainment and for adopting a variety of styles and appearances. Cher rose to fame in 1965 as one half of the folk rock husband-wife duo Sonny & Cher before releasing her first solo top-ten singles "Bang Bang " and "You Better Sit Down Kids". Throughout the 1970s, she scored the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves", "Half-Breed", and "Dark Lady", becoming the female solo artist with the most number-one singles in US history at the time.
Cher in 2021
Advertisement for Cher's second single, "All I Really Want to Do", featured in Cashbox, June 26, 1965
1960s publicity photo of Sonny & Cher
Cher on the set of the television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., 1967