Over her 40-plus-year career, Lauper’s music has brought calls to action, words of encouragement and a whole lotta truth to power. Though she says she's only recently heard about the Turtle Creek Chorale, she was immediately drawn to the queer-centric male choir because of its mission and work within the LGBTQ+ community.
“LGBTQ+ choruses around the world have helped change the world through music,” Lauper says. “Music is an international language. You don't even have to speak the language — you can hear the notes, you can hear the sweetness, and music is a great communicator.”
Lauper has long been an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, gender equality, reproductive freedom and for people living with HIV and AIDS. She enjoys performing in Texas largely because it is the home state of former governor Ann Richards, who was also outspoken in her support for marginalized communities.
With 2024 being an election year, Lauper wants to encourage fans to vote. During our phone call, she plugs a website called Vote411.org, on which visitors can check their voting registration status, register to vote and see the issues on the ballot in each county.
“There is no election that is too small to vote in,” says Lauper, emphasizing the importance of not only presidential elections, but also state and county elections. “And you must vote in every single election because [representatives] pass laws, there are amendments and there is tricky stuff you’ve got to understand.”
Songs like “True Colors” have become anthems for LGBTQ+ pride, and “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” is often played at events for women-centric organizations. In recent years, the phrase “Girls just want to have fundamental rights” has become a slogan for feminist movements amid abortion bans and reproductive healthcare restrictions
Though Lauper did not write those songs, she remains grateful to have sung and recorded them. At the time, she somehow knew that these records would prove timeless.
“They spoke to me on a really high level,” she says. “They were songs that were bigger than me, and those are the kinds of things you want to do. You want to do things that are bigger than yourself and that contribute to the world.”
Another one Lauper's most famous songs is the all-star record, “We Are the World,” featuring the likes of Prince, Michael Jackson, Ray Charles, Billy Joel, Diana Ross, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner and more. A Netflix documentary called The Greatest Night in Pop, which premiered last January, offers viewers a look at the making of the song, and features several of the artists, including Lauper, recalling how the song was made. Though Lauper looks back on the song fondly, Quincy Jones, who produced the record alongside Michael Omartian, has said that recording with Lauper was a challenge.
In a 2018 interview with Vulture, Jones said that Lauper “was fucking up every take because her necklace or bracelet was rattling in the microphone.”
Despite Jones’ anecdotes, Lauper says she holds the song close to her heart — and still loves to wear big jewelry. She remembers recording “We Are the World” as a “surreal” experience.
“So many famous people, so many stories, it was like, one after the other,” Lauper says.
She Is the World
Much of Lauper’s catalog still holds up decades after the songs' original release and it lives on through covers and samples. Last year, Nicki Minaj sampled “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” in her Pink Friday 2 track “Pink Friday Girls.” Earlier this month, Lauper made a surprise appearance at the New York City stop of Minaj’s Pink Friday 2 tour, during which the two performed “Pink Friday Girls.”“She's so sweet,” Lauper says of the rapper. “She had a wonderful show, and it was it was a pleasure to go see her. I mean, I remember when she was first coming out. What a real doll.”
Amid the Cyndi Lauper renaissance we’re experiencing, fans will soon get to know her in ways we never have before. A documentary called Let The Canary Sing, which will premiere June 4 on Paramount+, will highlight her life’s work, her activism and her everlasting impact on the musical landscape.
Though fans have wanted a documentary from Lauper from years, the singer was hesitant to showcase such intimate details of her life for the world. That is, until she found the right person to tell her story.
“It’s a documentary made by a wonderful filmmaker, Alison Ellwood,” Lauper says. “I saw her documentary — she also directed [the two-part Los Angeles-centered musical docuseries] Laurel Canyon — and that’s what made me want to have her tell my story. Because I knew it would be done honestly.”
During Lauper’s performance with the Turtle Creek Chorale, ticketholders can look forward to Lauper and the Chorale slaying her iconic discography in monumental choral fashion. Her show in Dallas could not arrive at a more opportune time.
“I think the people are fun in Texas,” Lauper says. “I think Texans have a big spirit, and that’s why I have fun [performing there]. I love Pride, and I love to celebrate, and I love celebrating everyone’s differences. That’s exciting to me.”
Rhapsody 2024 with Cyndi Lauper takes place Saturday, June 1, in the Dallas Ballroom at the Omni Dallas Hotel, 555 S. Lamar St.
