click on link to take you to a photo gallery of Cyndi
Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper (b. 6/22/53) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and activist. Her career has spanned over 40 years. Her album She’s So Unusual (1983) was the first debut album by a female artist to achieve four top-five hits on the Billboard Hot 100—”Girls Just Want to Have Fun”, “Time After Time”, “She Bop”, and “All Through the Night”—and earned Lauper the Best New Artist award at the 27th Annual Grammy Awards in 1985.
Her success continued with the soundtrack for the motion picture The Goonies (1985) and her second record True Colors (1986.) This album included the number-one single “True Colors” and “Change of Heart”, which peaked at number three. In 1989, Lauper saw success with “I Drove All Night” and in 1993, had her first dance club hit with “That’s What I Think”.
Since 1983, Lauper has released eleven studio albums and participated in many other projects. In 2010, Memphis Blues became Billboard’s most successful blues album of the year, remaining at number one on the Billboard Blues Albums chart for 13 consecutive weeks.
Lauper has sold over 50 million records worldwide.
Lauper is known for her distinctive image and for her powerful and distinctive four-octave singing range.
Early Life:
Cyndi was born in Brooklyn, New York City, to a Catholic family. Her father, Fred, was of Swiss-German descent, and a direct descendant of Christen Lauper, a leader of the Swiss peasant war of 1653. Her mother, Catrine (née Gallo) (1930–2022) was of Italian descent (from Sicily.) Lauper’s siblings are her younger brother Fred (nicknamed Butch), and older sister Ellen. Lauper’s parents divorced when she was five. Her mother remarried and divorced again.
Cyndi expressed herself with a variety of hair colors and eccentric clothing. She took a friend’s advice to spell her name as “Cyndi” rather than “Cindy”. Her unconventional sense of style led to classmates bullying and throwing stones at her. Cyndi went to Richmond Hill High School, but was expelled although she later earned her GED. She left home at 17, to escape her abusive stepfather, intending to study art. Her journey took her to Canada, where she spent two weeks in the woods with her dog Sparkle, trying to find herself. She eventually traveled to Vermont, where she took art classes at Johnson State College and supported herself working odd jobs.
Musical Beginnings:
Lauper grew up in the Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens and, as a child, listened to such artists as The Beatles and Judy Garland. At age 12, she began writing songs and playing an acoustic guitar given to her by her sister. In the early 1970s, Lauper performed as a vocalist with various cover bands. One, called Doc West, covered disco songs as well as Janis Joplin. A later band, Flyer, was active in the New York metropolitan area, singing hits by bands including Bad Company, Jefferson Airplane and Led Zeppelin. Although Lauper was performing on stage, she was not happy singing covers.
In 1978, Lauper met saxophone player John Turi through her manager Ted Rosenblatt. Turi and Lauper formed a band named Blue Angel and recorded a demo tape of original music. Steve Massarsky, manager of The Allman Brothers Band, heard the tape and liked Lauper’s voice. He bought Blue Angel’s contract for $5,000 and became their manager.
Discography:
|
Studio albums |
11 |
|---|---|
|
Compilation albums |
7 |
|
Video albums |
5 |
|
Music videos |
33 |
|
Singles |
53 |
Filmography:
Theater: 4
Television: 26
Film: 12
Some things to share:
In 2013, she won the Tony Award for best original score for composing the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, making her the first woman to win the category by herself. The musical was awarded five other Tonys including Tony Award for Best New Musical. In 2014, Lauper was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for the cast recording. In 2016, the West End production won Best New Musical at the Olivier Awards.
Cyndi has been celebrated for her humanitarian work, particularly as an advocate for LGBT rights in the United States. Her charitable efforts were acknowledged in 2013 when she was invited as a special guest to attend U.S. President Barack Obama’s second inauguration.
In 1977, Lauper damaged her vocal cords and took a year off from singing. She was told by doctors that she would never sing again, but regained her voice with the help of vocal coach, Katie Agresta.
Official website: here
Writing this up and listening to Cyndi, I realize I forgot how much I love her music.
Source: wikipedia
Tao Talk 
I loved her spirit, I love her even more for closing out the gay games, and her music of course. Learned a lot from this that I did not know about her her, thank you Lisa.
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Happy you enjoyed the post and learned some new things about her. My pleasure, Paul.
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Thank you for this article on Cyndi Lauper. I have loved her music for so long, but didn’t know a lot of these details. 🧡🌷
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Kymber, you are welcome and she’s a fabulous entertainer and social advocate for those too often silenced.
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I certainly appreciate her talent. Some years back some friends went to see Cher (one of her final farewell tours) hey I love Cher, anyway they said Cyndi stole the show. I think “True Colors” is very meaningful and I know we throw this word ‘iconic’ around perhaps to much but it applies here.
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Lovely comment on Cyndi. Thank you for sharing that story!
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She was such a big hit in the 80’s. The MTV era
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Thanks for mentioning MTV, Sadje. You’re right, she was an MTV Diva for sure.
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👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
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She has a unique voice
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Yes she does! Not sure who came first, her or Madonna, but they look a lot alike, imo, but different voices.
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I too love Cyndi’s work, but didn’t know a lot of the details I learned here, Lisa. She really is one of the greatest both on and off the stage.
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Happy you think she’s the greatest, Bruce. Thanks for stopping by!
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Great pick, Lisa. I’ve always had a thing for Cindy Lauper. She was not afraid to be different. And she had some great songs. I still love “Time After Time” and “True Colors”.
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Thank you, Christian. So many excellent musicians out there. I love it when they use their celebrity for good <3
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She has so many good albums and songs. I’ve been listening to Memphis Blues a lot recently which is a great album. But “Time After Time” gives me goosebumps every time. (K)
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Never heard a whole album of her music, but I would *love* to see Kinky Boots live.
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I saw it years ago. I remember it as fun, but only OK.
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Did you see the movie or the live theater? I saw the movie and liked it but I don’t think the live theater has made the cross-country touring, but I could be wrong.
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I saw it live. When my relatives came to the city to stay with me, they would sometimes take me to shows.
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Nice!
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Thanks for this post; big fan of Cyndi’s here. She goes way back in the soundtrack of life with my sweety (we put “True Colors” on a CD mix we handed out to our wedding guests), and, with my young boys we would often watch the DVD ‘Twelve Deadly Cyns… and then some.’
Cyndi was also a fixture when with a couple we used to hang out with for many years. The husband in that couple who, sadly, died seven years ago, would laugh loudly with amazed glee at the sustained note Cyndi sings at the end of “I’m Gonna Be Strong.” The four of us saw Cyndi when she opened a show here for Cher (though we were really there to see Cyn).
Reading your post I also remember the fun and joy of the debut album when it was released. An incredible talent and human.
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How precious those memories are for you that involve Cyndi. So happy to bring them back to you with this post :)
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🙂
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Ireally like her! She brings back memories of growing up in the 80’s!
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Carol Anne, I hear you on that. She’s an 80’s icon!
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