Cher is bringing what she insists is her farewell tour to Ireland in May.

While we frankly don't believe she's packing it in – or "bowing out before the rust sets in" as she so eloquently puts it – those of you who don't want take the risk should get to The Point, Dublin (9) or the Odyssey, Belfast (10).

A chart regular since the '60s, the 57-year-old will be trotting out such epics as 'Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves', 'I Got You Babe', ''If I Could Turn Back Time', 'Just Like Jesse James' and 'I Believe'.

"Deciding to stop is partly an age thing," she explains. "The only person I know of my age who's still doing this is Tina Turner. I'm doing things on stage that would choke a girl of 20.

"It's not the performing that's hard, it's the going from place to place, always travelling and staying in strange hotel rooms every night. I'll still be around, it's not like I'm going to leave the universe - I just won't tour again."