Cher takes on Miley Cyrus with first album in 12 years

PARIS (AFP) ― At 67, Cher is one of a generation of 1960s performers holding out against retirement, and she says she has no plans to make room for younger singers like 20-year-old Miley Cyrus.

“I’ve noticed ... (with) my mother’s generation and my grandmother’s generation, that at a certain age they would just kind of move aside,” the U.S. singer told reporters in Paris, where she was promoting her first album in 12 years.

“In my generation ― especially in music ― if you can move us out you can get in, but if you can’t, we’re still there. Any other generation would have moved aside to let newer kids come in but we’re not giving up,” Cher said.

The album cover of “Closer to the Truth” features the singer and actress in a suitably age-defying blonde wig and skimpy lace dress.

Some 49 shows are planned in the United States to promote the album with the option of more depending on “how I feel about it,” she said.

Cher waded into the Cyrus debate last month when she criticized the singer and “Hannah Montana” star’s provocative performance at the MTV Video Music Awards in August.

But she told reporters in Paris she had now modified her views.

“I’m not a fan but I respect her because she’s very smart,” Cher said.

“In the beginning I thought this is really bad. I didn’t like it because I didn’t think it was professional.

“Then I thought ‘she’s not doing it for people like me, she’s doing it for her audience’ and it was so perfect it was genius. People will talk about it forever.”

The Oscar, Emmy, Golden Globe and Grammy winner made her name in the mid-1960s as one half of the husband and wife duo Sonny and Cher.

She went on to became a solo artist selling over 100 million albums worldwide and has starred on Broadway and in Hollywood films.

But she made it clear that professional life was far from being the only thing that mattered to her.

Last month she turned down the chance to open the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia in protest over the country’s new law prohibiting teaching about homosexuality to minors.

“I think that (the Russian law) speaks for itself, all you have to do is look at the law and listen to the anecdotal stories.”

She said she was also appalled that feminism in the U.S. appeared to be going backwards, with abortion clinics closing in many parts of the country, resulting in women losing “control over their bodies.”

“We’re fighting a terrible battle that we already won in the ’70s and lost somehow in the last 10 years.

“I believe that feminism should be something that is picked back up ... because you can’t just lose all of your rights and play dead,” she said.

A frequent visitor to France, Cher added that she liked the country so much she wanted to be buried there.

“I always wanted to be buried here but they don’t allow it,” she said.

“You have to die on the spot so if I know in advance, if I’m very sick, I’m coming!”