Dolly Parton's Birthday Message to Cher Is Gay Canon

From one diva to another, Parton sang a brief mash-up of her megahit "I Will Always Love You" and "Happy Birthday" for Cher.

Tracy E. Gilchrist

Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP of Editorial and Special Projects at equalpride. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.

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Tracy E. Gilchrist

May 20 2019 3:39 PM EST

May 20 2019 4:26 PM EST

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It's Cher's 73rd birthday, and social media has been lit up tributes to the singular Oscar-winning diva. One of the most charming homages came courtesy of a diva in her own right -- Dolly Parton.

"Hi, Cher, it's Dolly! Happy birthday to you," Parton says in a video she posted on Twitter.

"We're the same age now. Well, I might be a minute or two older than you, but what's a minute or two among friends -- old bags like us? I don't mean that. I think we're both holding up pretty good for our age. What are we now -- 37?" Parton says in her folksy manner.

While Parton may be a minute older than the Oscar winner for Moonstruck, Cher released her first album, All I Really Want to Do in 1965, two years before Parton's 1967 debut album, Hello, I'm Dolly. From there, they both appeared in variety hours. Cher was in the wildly successful Sonny and Cher Show, which ran from 1971 to 1974, while Parton was the star of the Dolly! show in 1976. Both women went on to become actresses, with Cher dipping into serious material including Silkwood and Mask before taking on lighter fare like Mermaids and Parton kick-starting her acting career with the comedy Nine to Five before starring in the tearjerking Steel Magnolias.