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Here’s What Cyndi Lauper Must Play on Her ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour’

The singer is going out with a bang in 2024 — she’s got the concert tour of a lifetime, a new documentary and an immersive stage show


spinner image Singer Cyndi Lauper wearing a colorful yellow, red and pink outfit that covers her arms along with three toy doll heads attached to her hair
Ruven Afanador

Her true colors? All of them. In a career stretching 47 years, Cyndi Lauper, 70, has taken on pop, punk, dance, funk, blues, country and Broadway. And don’t forget the literal colors, from her shifting Day-Glo hair and kaleidoscopic eyeshadow palette to a vibrant, flamboyant fashion sense that would startle a peacock.

The singer-songwriter is bringing her four-octave vocal range, eccentric style and brash-tawkin’ personality to the road one last time on her “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour,” a 23-city trek that starts Oct. 18 in Montreal and wraps up Dec. 5 in Chicago. It’s her first major outing since 2016’s “Detour Tour.”

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Lauper will be joined by special guests to be announced later, according to Live Nation. Stay tuned to AARP for updates.

The Brooklyn-born singer is also the subject of Let the Canary Sing, a new documentary streaming on Paramount+. The film traces Lauper’s career from a rebellious, struggling bar singer in Queens to global superstar, MTV darling, committed feminist and tireless activist. It’s directed by Alison Ellwood, 62, who made the music docs Laurel Canyon and The Go-Gos. The title derives from a lawsuit brought against Lauper by a former manager after she left the band Blue Angel. When the judge ruled for Lauper, he pounded his gavel and pronounced, “Let the canary sing.” Legacy Recordings has released a companion album, Let the Canary Sing, available on vinyl and in a digital expanded edition.

Note: Paramount+ provides a discount to AARP members and pays AARP a royalty for the use of its intellectual property.

The singer also appears in The Greatest Night in Pop, a documentary on Netflix that revisits the 1985 recording of megahit charity song “We Are the World,” and in this AARP video True Talk With Cyndi Lauper: Don't Listen to the Haters.

VIDEO: Cyndi Lauper: Don’t Listen to the Haters

And she just sold a majority share of her music to Sweden’s Pophouse Entertainment Group, founded by ABBA singer Björn Ulvaeus, 79. Pophouse created ABBA Voyage, the immersive virtual concert that featured digital avatars subbing for the vocal group onstage. Lauper envisions a less glittery production that replicates New York and focuses on her upbringing with the women that influenced her most: her mother, grandmother and aunt.

But if you want to see the wacky, eclectic songbird in the flesh, the farewell tour is the best bet. Lauper has a deep well of material to draw from: her 11 studio albums, soundtrack contributions, covers and collaborations. Here are a dozen songs on our fantasy set list (and we won’t be surprised if she does a few of them).

‘True Colors’ (1986)

Impassioned vocals, a strong melody and an uplifting message about self-empowerment made this an instant classic and a gay anthem. Written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, the song was rejected by Anne Murray before being sent to Lauper.

‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’ (1983)

Robert Hazard wrote this song with a randy wink from a male perspective, but Lauper flipped the tone and message, creating a lasting hit that’s both a bubblegum romp and a feminist anthem.

‘Time After Time’ (1984)

The beautiful, heartfelt ballad and vocal showcase became a Lauper signature and a ubiquitous love song deployed in movies and TV. Lauper wrote the song with Rob Hyman of the Hooters when both were having difficulties with their romantic partners.

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‘I Drove All Night’ (1989)

This pining, passionate ballad, driven by Lauper’s mature, confident vocal, scored a Grammy nomination. Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly wrote the song for Roy Orbison, who recorded it in 1987, the year before he died, but his version stayed in the vault until 1992.

‘Money Changes Everything’ (1984)

Lauper pulls out the stops with a no-frills, strapping vocal on a hard rocker that decries the ways money poisons relationships. The song was originally released by Atlanta rock band the Brains and written by its front man, Tom Gray, in 1978, but Lauper’s hit eclipsed it artistically and commercially.

‘She Bop’ (1984)

The joyful, zany pop tune about female self-pleasure sparked controversy and landed on the “Filthy Fifteen” list compiled by the Parents Music Resource Center, whose efforts led to the imposition of Parental Advisory stickers on recordings.

‘All Through the Night’ (1984)

Lauper put her stamp on the Jules Shear love song, turning his folkier original into a robust, electronics-pumped vehicle that flaunted her vocal range without sacrificing the romantic ballad’s bittersweetness.

‘Sally’s Pigeons’ (1993)

Lauper, who cowrote this song in 1991 with Mary Chapin Carpenter, 66, based the tragic narrative on a childhood friend who died after having a back-alley abortion in her teens. A new version was released in 2022 after the repeal of Roe v. Wade.

‘I’m Gonna Be Strong’ (1995)

Lauper belts this wrenching ballad with gusto, drama and all the hurt the lyrics demand. She first recorded it in 1980 as a member of Blue Angel, but the tune has a longer history. Written by Barry Mann, 85, and Cynthia Weil, it was initially recorded by Frankie Laine in 1963 and became a hit when Gene Pitney released it in 1964.

‘My First Night Without You’ (1989)

The second single from the excellent but commercially disappointing A Night to Remember album barely registered on the charts, despite Lauper’s stunning, emotional performance. The powerful, heart-rending ballad deserves a proper live send-off.

‘At Last’ (2003)

Etta James lays claim to the definitive version of this Mack Gordon/Harry Warren standard that every diva aspires to summit. Lauper shines with a stripped-down, bluesy arrangement and luscious, reined-in vocals.

‘The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough’ (1985)

Hired by Steven Spielberg, 77, as the musical director for The Goonies soundtrack, Lauper cowrote the playful, charging pop-rock tune for the project, initially dubbing it “Good Enough.” Warner Bros. changed the song’s name to incorporate the film title. While the singer confessed that she never liked this hit song, she slowly added it to set lists due to fan demand.

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