Dark Lady - Fabulous Cher Impersonator!

The founder of Klone Records should be awarded the Nobel Prize for services to humanity. No other record label in the history of music has catered to lovers of tragic dance music with the same level of unwavering dedication. Klone's roster of talent is nothing short of breathtaking: Nicki French, Jason Prince, Viola Wills, Jackie Clune and Kelly Marie have all recently released stunning anthems for the label. Nobody does bottom of the barrel dance quite like Klone!

Therefore, it came as no surprise last year when Klone commissioned an album of Hi-NRG Cher cover versions by the extremely talented drag queen/Cher impersonator Dark Lady. "Forever Cher" establishes Dark Lady, otherwise known as Jimmy James, as the Hope diamond of male Cher impersonators. His vocals and intonation are spot on and the resemblance to Cher's gloriously husky voice is uncanny. "Forever Cher" should be an unbearable trainwreck but it works surprisingly well. An album of Cher cover versions is fabulous enough, but throw in a singing drag queen and some cheesy dance beats and you have a slice of pop trash heaven!

I can imagine Cher listening to this album with a massive grin on her face - if she still has any facial movement left after all that Botox. I'm sure Cher would get the joke. She would probably kick herself for not thinking of the idea first! Scarily, there isn't a great deal of difference between "Forever Cher" and Cher's own sublime "Living Proof". In fact, the album focuses rather heavily on Cher's recent output, which makes the Hi-NRG makeover less jarring than it would otherwise have been. As much as I enjoy the new songs, the highlights of "Forever Cher" are without a doubt Cher's early material and her 90s classics. The dance versions of "Dark Lady", "Half Breed" and "Bang Bang" are a trash lover's wet dream. Dark Lady's "gayed-up" version of "If I Could Turn Back Time" works nicely, while "The Shoop Shoop Song" is made even more ridiculous than even I could have possibly imagined. The cream of the tragic crop is one of my all-time favourite Cher songs, "I Found Someone". Could anyone ever forget Cher's gorgeous chain-metal dress in the video clip? Now that was fierce! I'd love to hear a good remix of Cher's version. In the meantime this will do nicely.

You can purchase the album from Amazon or from Klone directly.