Featured Artist: Cyndi Lauper (Part 1)
3 min readThere are not many musicians still around today that have had a career as successful or as colorful as pop icon Cyndi Lauper. The quirky personality donning and eccentrically appareled pop star has been gracing us with hits for the last 30-something years. Starting off in a string of covers bands before going down the solo path in the shape that we have adored for these 30+ years, Lauper’s big breakthrough occurred back in 1983 with the infectious debut album, She’s So Unusual. The record, which remains a classic staple within music’s pop history books, launched the pint-sized, big voiced singer onto the world stage. Hits like her signature track, Girls Just Want To Have Fun and the controversial She Bop were released side by side with some of the musicians most timeless and well-received ballads including All Through The Night and Time After Time; tracks that quickly solidified Cyndi Lauper as one of the most talented new artists in the eighties and helped her pin down a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1985.
During the eighties, Lauper dominated the charts and the stage with records like True Colors and A Night To Remember; further adding to the shine of her star, as well as fronting big film soundtracks (The Goonies) and trying her hand at acting in a handful of low-budget silver screen moments.
Her efforts in the arts have recently been acknowledged with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – an accolade that is long overdue and an accolade that could be no more deserving of any other artist than Lauper who has made such an impenetrable dent on the music industry. She has also continued to be a voice for the LGBT community and has been doing astounding work with LGBT youth for many years through her True Colors Foundation and she has also received recent acclaim for her work on the Broadway musical hit, Kinky Boots.
Throughout her career, Lauper has crossed and mastered several genres, always looking to redefine what it means to be a diverse, genre pushing and boundary pushing artist and doing so better than most. While her debut was dosed in new wave and pop/rock, her style has transformed and has never nestled for very long within any one genre. Since her predominantly pop-oriented eighties heyday, Lauper has dipped her toes into Jazz (2003’s At Last), Dance (2008’s Bring Ya To The Brink) and Blues (2010’s Memphis Blues). Lauper is now preparing for the release of her eleventh studio album, Detour, which sees the light of day on May 6th around the world and throws the singer into the world of country music with collaborations with the likes of country legends Willie Nelson, Vince Gill and Emmylou Harris as well as pop singer-songwriter Jewel.
Cyndi Lauper has always been a fundamental and inspirational artist to us here at Renowned for Sound and with the release of her forthcoming record, it was only right that we named the iconic songstress as our Featured Artist.
::: RenownedForSound.com’s Editor and Founder –
Interviewing and reviewing the best in new music and globally recognized artists is his passion.
Over the years he has been lucky enough to review thousands of music releases and concerts and interview artists ranging from top selling superstars like 27-time Grammy Award winner Alison Krauss, Boyz II Men, Roxette, Cyndi Lauper, Lisa Loeb and iconic Eagles front man/songwriter, Glenn Frey through to more recent successes including Newton Faulkner, Janelle Monae and Caro Emerald.
Brendon manages and coordinates the amazing team of writers on RenownedForSound.com who are based in the UK, the U.S and Australia.