Cher Credits Boy Toy Hip-Hop Producer A.E. With Reviving Her Career

Cher and Alexander Edwards

Cher says it was her young boyfriend Alexander Edwards who encouraged her to get back in the studio.

Cher was ‘ambivalent’ about her Christmas record until her boyfriend, Alexander Edwards, came onto the scene. The singing icon, 77, and hip-hop producer Alexander, 37, have been dating for a year after first meeting during Paris Fashion Week.

Thanks to her boy toy, Cher released a new album – which took her in a different direction than her previous offerings.

“It was Alexander who talked me into singing again. He brought me some songs and the subject of the Christmas album came up,” Cher smiled to Hello! magazine.

“I was ambivalent. I’ve been asked about doing one since my Sonny and Cher days. The truth is that I never really imagined myself doing it.”

The festive record features Christmas crooner Michael Buble, as well as Stevie Wonder and Tyga as special guests.

It marks the “Believe” hitmaker’s 27th studio album and includes Cher’s own take on a Christmas song, “DJ Play a Christmas Song,” as well as versions of “Please Come Home for Christmas” and Chuck Berry’s “Run Rudolph Run.”

“I didn’t want to do ‘Silent Night,’ ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ or any of that stuff. It had to be something that was me,” she explained.

“Alexander helped me realize that now was the right time. He’s incredible: a talented producer and writer and so much more.”