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Cyndi Lauper


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Cyndi Lauper


Birth Place: Brooklyn, New York, USA
Date of Birth: June 22, 1953
Heritage: American
Famous for: Her debut album She's So Unusual (1984)

Contact Cyndi Lauper

True Colors

Background:

“Sometimes when I’m singing, I feel like I’m floating. I feel like I’m like this tall and I feel like I could do anything. I think that’s why I’ve always sang because I’m addicted to it, because it feels like flying. If you're lucky, you take people on the flight with you. If you’re lucky, you can create a space and bring other people inside. It’s like an inner space that goes outside. It’s very scientific.”

Enjoying meteoric success with her platinum solo debut album She’s So Unusual (1983, dispatched the single “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”), singer/actress Cyndi Lauper soon took home a Grammy Award and two American Music Awards, as well as two Grammy nominations. Lauper also earned platinum certification for her sophomore album, True Colors (1986, featuring the title track as the first single).

As an actress, Lauper won an Emmy Award and received another Emmy nomination thanks to her witty portrayal of Marianne Lugasso in several episodes of the sitcom “Mad About You” (1993, 1995, 1999). The recipient of the 1985 Women in Film Crystal Award, Lauper was also seen in such films as the fantasy comedy Vibes (1988), Off and Running (1991), the comedy movie Life With Mikey (1993) and The Opportunist (2000).

On a more private note, the 58th woman on VH1’s “100 Greatest Women of Rock N Roll” has a famous Manhattan apartment house on the West Side called “The Apthorp” and a beach house in South Carolina. She is married to actor David Thornton and is the mother of a son.


Damaged Vocal Chords

Childhood and Family:

Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper, who would later be famous as Cyndi Lauper, was born on June 20, 1953, in Ozone Park, New York, to Catrine Dominique and Fred Lauper. Cyndi, who learned playing guitar and writing lyrics at age 12, decided to quit her studies at Richmond Hills High School and pursued her passion for music.

After briefly traveling to Canada, Cyndi joined some cover bands. In 1977, she had some damage on her vocal chords, which made her take a year off to train with a vocal coach before recording an album with new material.

Formerly having a romantic relationship with manager David Wolff, Cyndi then met actor David Thornton while filming Off and Running (1991). They tied the wedding knot on November 24, 1991, and have a son named Declyn Wallace (born in 1997).


So Unusual

Career:

After singing cover songs with the bands “Doc West” and “Flyer,” Cyndi Lauper became a member of the band Blue Angel and wrote original songs for their self-titled album, released on Polydor Records in 1980. However, the album did not make much of an impact and the group disbanded shortly after. Lauper, who then returned to cover songs to support her life, met future manager David Wolff and was signed to a subsidiary of Columbia Records called Portrait Records.

“Who is this girl Cyndi Lauper, and why is she SO Unusual?” Cyndi Lauper

On the new label, Lauper released the immediate hit album She’s So Unusual (1983) and set off the single “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” whose video received heavy airplay on MTV. The platinum recording also broke the charts with the ballad “Time After Time,” “She Bop” and “All Through the Night.” Before long, Lauper won a Grammy for Best New Artist and was nominated for two others (one for Album of the Year, one for Record of the Year). In addition, the singer took home two American Music awards, a Rolling Stone award and an MTV award for Best Artist.

The fame soon brought Lauper to the screen, where she first took part in the direct-to-video short project Prime Cuts (1984). The singer also sang in the choir for the benefit single “We Are The World” (1985), participated in several WWF projects (such as the video-released Wrestlemania, 1985) and provided chart-burning soundtracks for Steven Spielberg’s The Goonies (1985, sang “Good Enough” and “What A Thrill”).

Resuming her success, Lauper launched the hit single “True Colors” from her platinum sophomore album with the same title (1986). Featuring her collaboration with Nile Rodgers, Aimee Mann, Billy Joel and The Bangles, the No. 4 album on the Billboard 200 chart sold over 12 million copies worldwide. True Colors also produced such tracks as “Change of Heart,” “Boy Blue” and the cover of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.”

The recipient of the 1985 Women in Film Crystal award made her movie debut as a psychic named Sylvia Pickel, opposite Jeff Goldblum, in the fantasy comedy Vibes (1988). For the same movie, she performed the self-produced “Hole in My Heart” and saw the song make it to the Hot 100 chart. A year later, she co-directed her own music video for “I Drove All Night,” which was featured in her album A Night to Remember (1989). After performing in the televised concert The Wall (1990), the singer starred as struggling actress Cyd Morse in the black comedy thriller Off and Running (1991, also wrote “The Only Fish (In My Sea)” and sang “Blue Moon,” “Big Spender” and “Unabbreviated Love”).

Briefly disappearing, Lauper resurfaced on screen with a recurring role as ex-wife Marianne Lugasso in several episodes of the sitcom “Mad About You” (1993, 1995, 1999). For her funny performance in the series, the performer won an Emmy and was nominated for another Emmy. She also accepted the supporting role of secretary Geena Briganti in the Michael J. Fox-starring comedy Life With Mikey (1993, also sang the self-penned “Feels Like Christmas”).

Although facing poor sales with the R&B-sounding album Hat Full of Stars (1993), Lauper hit back with the greatest hits compilation Twelve Deadly Cyns...and Then Some (1995), which featured the rewritten track “Hey Now (Girls Just Want To Have Fun).” The album sold over 4 million copies worldwide and the first single was included in the soundtrack for To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995).

Lauper’s next studio album, Sisters of Avalon (1997), fared even better with its social issues-themed tracks, such as the song about a drag queen’s life, “Ballad of Cleo and Joe,” and the AIDS-themed “Say a Prayer.” The artist then contributed a cover of The Trammps’s “Disco Inferno” for the comedy film A Night at the Roxbury (1998) and released the holiday album Merry Christmas...Have a Nice Life (1998), before co-headlining the Cher’s 1999 “Do You Believe” tour.

On screen, after playing Pidge in the adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s story The Happy Prince (1999, TV), Lauper co-starred as disgruntled girlfriend Sally Mahon in the action drama The Opportunists (2000), alongside Christopher Walken. The next year, the musician tried the stage world with a leading role in New York Stage and Film’s production of the musical “Largo” (2001). Lauper’s musical journey continued with the compilation album The Essential Cyndi Lauper (2003), the US Top 40 cover album At Last (2003, earned a Grammy nomination for the cover of “Unchained Melody”) and the exclusively-released-in-Japan Shine (2004, several songs were leaked to the public in 2001).

“I was talking with [A&R executive] David Massey and I realized that I’d never recorded anything like what we were doing live. I wanted to do a really good acoustic recording of ‘Time After Time,’ but I didn’t want to just make a ‘best of’ record.’ So I decided to take a lot of songs that I love, whether they were hits or should have been hits or were new, and put them into this style.” Cyndi Lauper on The Body Acoustic (2005)

The multitalented performer, who had minor screen roles in “Higglytown Heroes” (2004) and “That’s So Raven” (2005), enchanted her fans with the acoustic recording The Body Acoustic (2005). The recording included guest appearances by Shaggy, Ani DiFranco, Adam Lazzara, Jeff Beck, Puffy AmiYumi and Sarah McLachlan. In 2006, Lauper made her Broadway debut in a revival of “The Threepenny Opera.”


Awards:

  • Emmy: Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, “Mad About You,” 1995
  • Women in Film Crystal: Crystal Award, 1985
  • American Music: Favorite Female Vocalist Pop/Rock, 1983
  • American Music: Favorite Female Vocalist Video Pop/Rock, 1983
  • Grammy: Best New Artist, 1983
  • Rolling Stone: Best New Artist and Best Female Video Artist, 1983
  • MTV: Best Female Video Artist
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