Cyndi Lauper has lived a multi-colored life, from her punkier days—even touring with The Ramones in the early ’80s—and 1983 debut She’s So Unusual with hits “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” “Time After Time,” and “Money Changes Everything,” through an explosive follow up True Colors, and A Night to Remember (1988) with the smoldering “I Drove All Night.” Shifting around many genres throughout her career, Lauper has even taken on jazz standards (At Last, 2003), blues (Memphis Blues, 2010), and her most recent 11th album in 2016, an ode to country, Detour.
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Now 35 years since the release of True Colors, the album, which was self-produced by Lauper and Lennie Petze, reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200 chart and earned two Grammy nominations for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for “911” and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “True Colors,” erased the “sophomore curse” of a less successful second album and planted Lauper’s iconic pop status.
To date, Lauper has sold more than 50 million records and is one of the only artists to pick up a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, and a Tony Award, the latter for Kinky Boots, which had a Broadway run from 2013 through 2019.
Here, we touch the surface of Lauper’s nearly 40-year career with eight of her greatest hits.
