Cher sued by backup dancers over alleged race discrimination

PanARMENIAN.Net - Cher, the American pop star renowned for her flamboyant performances and outlandish stage costumes, is being sued after allegedly complaining that her stage show featured "too much colour", The Telegraph reported.

In a lawsuit, her former choreographer and two back-up dancers – all three of whom are black – claimed that their dismissal followed a previous instruction from the 68-year-old singer-actress not to hire any more dark skinned dancers.

Cher is alleged to have told her ex-choreographer Kevin Wilson that her hugely-successful Dressed to Kill tour "had too much colour" after he told her there was a "minority female dancer" whom he wanted to cast. She is then alleged to have told him to find a dancer who was white and blonde.

The stage show features the singer dancing a number of provocative routines with a line-up of highly toned back-up performers.

Wilson, who also appeared onstage on the tour, and the two other dancers were fired in July. They were dismissed after complaining to managers that another dancer had assaulted an unidentified woman in a hotel room while on tour – but in the lawsuit they claimed race was the motivating factor in their sacking.

A third dancer who is also making claims of unfair dismissal in the same lawsuit said she was sacked because of her age.

"The accusations are ridiculous," Cher's publicist Liz Rosenberg said. "They couldn't be further from the truth."

A legal representative for the star said that the alleged racist comment "is untrue and categorically denied. To attribute such a statement to Cher is absurd."

The Dressed to Kill tour is among the top 10 highest grossing pop tours of 2014, raking in more than $48 million so far. Cher will begin the second leg in Toronto next month before winding up in New York in December.

The lawsuit states the dancers were told they were being fired to make budget savings on the tour. Their wrongful termination lawsuit seeks more than $10 million in damages. If the case goes to court, a jury would determine the level of any award.

"The allegations are made by long term employees who have been on tour with Cher for over a decade," said Perry Wander, a lawyer for the dancers.

Cher was born Cherilyn Sarkisian to an Armenian-American truck driver and an actress-model mother whose ancestry may have included Cherokee Indian. She first came to fame as one half of a singing duo with Sonny Bono, her future husband.