Her breakthrough started in 1972 with her debut song "He was not a painter"; she was popular singer of the 1970s.

Other singers later told the media that she had suffered these setbacks because she had refused to have sex with pop manager Péter Erdős who basically controlled the production of all pop and rock music in Hungary in the 1980s.

Cserháti was discovered again in the mid-1990s, her album Ashes and Diamonds (Hamu és gyémánt, 1996) became a great success.

Due to the successful career of his wife at the time, Szirtes was the first man in Hungary to go on parental leave.

Cserháti's later relationships were unsuccessful; at the time of her death, she had been single for several years.