92 Facts About Cyndi Lauper

Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper was born on June 22,1953 and is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and activist.

Cyndi Lauper's success continued with the soundtrack for the motion picture The Goonies and her second record True Colors.

Since 1983, Cyndi Lauper has released eleven studio albums and participated in many other projects.

In 2014, Cyndi Lauper was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for the cast recording.

Cyndi Lauper has won awards at the Grammys, Emmys, Tonys, the New York's Outer Critics Circle, MTV Video Music Awards, Billboard Awards, and American Music Awards.

An inductee into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Cyndi Lauper is one of the few singers to win three of the four major American entertainment awards.

Cyndi Lauper won the inaugural Best Female Video prize at the 1984 VMAs for "Girls Just Want to Have Fun".

Cyndi Lauper is featured in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Women Who Rock exhibit.

Cyndi Lauper is known for her distinctive image, featuring a variety of hair colors and eccentric clothing, and for her powerful and distinctive four-octave singing range.

Cyndi Lauper has been celebrated for her humanitarian work, particularly as an advocate for LGBT rights in the United States.

Cyndi Lauper was born in Brooklyn, New York City, to a Catholic family.

Cyndi Lauper's father, Fred, was of Swiss-German descent, and a direct descendant of Christen Lauper, a leader of the Swiss peasant war of 1653.

Cyndi Lauper's siblings are her younger brother Fred, and older sister, Ellen.

Cyndi Lauper grew up in the Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens and, as a child, listened to such artists as The Beatles and Judy Garland.

Cyndi Lauper went to Richmond Hill High School, but was expelled although she later earned her GED.

Cyndi Lauper left home at 17, to escape her abusive stepfather, intending to study art.

Cyndi Lauper's journey took her to Canada, where she spent two weeks in the woods with her dog Sparkle, trying to find herself.

Cyndi Lauper eventually traveled to Vermont, where she took art classes at Johnson State College and supported herself working odd jobs.

In 1977, Cyndi Lauper damaged her vocal cords and took a year off from singing.

Cyndi Lauper was told by doctors that she would never sing again, but regained her voice with the help of vocal coach Katie Agresta.

In 1978, Cyndi Lauper met saxophone player John Turi through her manager Ted Rosenblatt.

Turi and Cyndi Lauper formed a band named Blue Angel and recorded a demo tape of original music.

Cyndi Lauper bought Blue Angel's contract for $5,000 and became their manager.

Cyndi Lauper received recording offers as a solo artist, but held out, wanting the band to be included in any deal she made.

Cyndi Lauper hated the album cover, saying that it made her look like Big Bird, but Rolling Stone magazine later included it as one of the 100 best new wave album covers.

Cyndi Lauper later filed an $80,000 suit against them, which forced Lauper into bankruptcy.

Music critics who saw Cyndi Lauper perform with Blue Angel believed she had star potential due to her four-octave singing range.

In 1981, while singing in a local New York bar, Cyndi Lauper met David Wolff, who took over as her manager and had her sign a recording contract with Portrait Records, a subsidiary of Epic Records.

On October 14,1983, Cyndi Lauper released her first solo album, She's So Unusual.

Cyndi Lauper became popular with teenagers and critics, in part due to her hybrid punk image, which was crafted by stylist Patrick Lucas.

Cyndi Lauper co-wrote four songs on She's So Unusual, including the hits "Time After Time" and "She Bop".

Cyndi Lauper found the original lyrics to be misogynistic, so she rewrote the song as an anthem for young women.

Cyndi Lauper won Best New Artist at the 1985 Grammy Awards.

Cyndi Lauper wore almost a pound of necklaces at her award ceremony.

Cyndi Lauper appeared twice on the cover of People, and was named a Ms.

In 1985, Cyndi Lauper participated in USA for Africa's famine-relief fund-raising single "We Are the World", which sold more than 20 million copies since then.

Cyndi Lauper appeared with professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, who played her "bodyguard" and would later make many appearances as herself in a number of the World Wrestling Federation's "Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection" events, and played Wendi Richter's manager in the inaugural WrestleMania event.

Dave Wolff, Cyndi Lauper's boyfriend and manager at the time, was a wrestling fan as a boy, and engineered the rock and wrestling connection.

In 1985, Cyndi Lauper released the single "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough", from the soundtrack to the movie The Goonies, and an accompanying video which featured several wrestling stars.

In 1986, Cyndi Lauper appeared on the Billy Joel album The Bridge, with a song called "Code of Silence".

Cyndi Lauper is credited as having written the lyrics with Joel and she sings a duet with him.

Cyndi Lauper made her film debut in August 1988 in the quirky comedy Vibes, alongside Jeff Goldblum, Peter Falk, and Julian Sands.

Cyndi Lauper played a psychic in search of a city of gold in South America.

Cyndi Lauper contributed a track called "Hole in My Heart " for the Vibes soundtrack, but the song was not included.

Cyndi Lauper received a Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 1990 Grammy Awards for "I Drove All Night", but overall album sales for A Night to Remember were down.

Cyndi Lauper took part in Ono and Lennon's son Sean's project called "The Peace Choir", performing a new version of Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance".

In 1993, Lauper returned to acting, playing Michael J Fox's ditzy secretary in Life with Mikey.

Cyndi Lauper won an Emmy Award for her role as Marianne Lugasso in the sitcom Mad About You.

On November 19,1997, Cyndi Lauper gave birth to her son, Declyn Wallace Cyndi Lauper Thornton.

On January 17,1999, Cyndi Lauper appeared as an animated version of herself in The Simpsons episode "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken", singing the National Anthem to the melody of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun".

Cyndi Lauper appeared in the films Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle and The Opportunists.

Cyndi Lauper contributed to the soundtrack of the 2000 animated film, Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, performing the song "I Want a Mom That Will Last Forever".

On October 12,2000, Cyndi Lauper took part in the television show Women in Rock, Girls with Guitars performing with Ann Wilson of Heart and with the girl group, Destiny's Child.

Cyndi Lauper made appearances on Showtime's hit show Queer as Folk in 2005, directed a commercial for Totally 80s edition of the board game Trivial Pursuit in 2006, served as a judge on the 6th Annual Independent Music Awards and made her Broadway debut in the Tony-nominated The Threepenny Opera as Jenny.

On October 16,2006, Cyndi Lauper was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.

Cyndi Lauper performed on the "Girls Night Out", headlining it with Rosie O'Donnell in the US.

On November 17,2009, Cyndi Lauper performed a collaborative work with Wyclef Jean called "Slumdog Millionaire", performing it on the Late Show with David Letterman.

In March 2010, Cyndi Lauper appeared on NBC's The Celebrity Apprentice, coming in sixth place.

Cyndi Lauper made international news in March 2011 for an impromptu performance of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" while waiting for a delayed flight at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in Buenos Aires.

In June 2012, Cyndi Lauper made her first appearance for WWE in 27 years, to promote WWE Raw's 1000th episode to memorialize "Captain" Lou Albano.

In September 2012, Cyndi Lauper performed at fashion designer Betsey Johnson's 40 year Retrospective Fashion show.

Cyndi Lauper released a New York Times best selling memoir that detailed her struggle with child abuse and depression.

Cyndi Lauper composed music and lyrics for the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, with Harvey Fierstein writing the book.

Cyndi Lauper was the first woman to win solo in this category.

Cyndi Lauper was a guest on 36 dates of Cher's Dressed to Kill Tour, starting April 23,2014.

On September 17,2014, Cyndi Lauper sang on the finale of America's Got Talent.

In March 2015, Cyndi Lauper guest starred on the crime show Bones as Avalon Harmonia.

Cyndi Lauper promoted her work with Novartis and the National Psoriasis Foundation, and discussed her own five years with psoriasis, on The Today Show in July 2015.

Cyndi Lauper announced a project with producer Seymour Stein, which she later told Rolling Stone was a country album coproduced by Tony Brown.

In January 2016, Cyndi Lauper announced she would release a new album on May 6,2016.

In February 2016, Cyndi Lauper was nominated for an Olivier Award for her contribution to the UK production of Kinky Boots along with Stephen Oremus, the man responsible for the arrangements.

In May 2016, Cyndi Lauper was featured on "Swipe to the Right" from Electronica 2: The Heart of Noise by French producer Jean-Michel Jarre.

In October 2016, her son Dex Cyndi Lauper was the opening act for her Scottsdale, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada dates on her Detour Tour.

In January 2017, Cyndi Lauper was featured on Austin City Limits 42nd season performing some of her classic songs alongside country tunes from Detour.

Cyndi Lauper teamed up with Hyman because she wanted "the music to sound like the 80s".

On November 15,2018, it was announced that Cyndi Lauper would receive the Icon Award at the Billboard's 13th annual Women in Music Event on December 6 in New York City.

Originally written and performed in French by Dumas, Cyndi Lauper performed the English translation in the English version of the film originally titled La Course des tuques.

On January 26,2020, Cyndi Lauper sang a chorus from the song "I Sing the Body Electric" of the soundtrack from the 1980 movie Fame at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards Show held in Los Angeles.

Cyndi Lauper retired after a four-decade run of producing the show.

In November 2020, Cyndi Lauper dueted with former top ten "American Idol" finalist Casey Abrams on a cover version of the song "Eve of Destruction".

In November 2021 Cyndi Lauper featured as guest vocalist on the track "Blame it on Christmas" by Shea Diamond.

Cyndi Lauper performed at the 2022 MusiCares Person of the Year Tribute Show honoring Joni Mitchell on April 1.

Cyndi Lauper was in a relationship from 1982 to 1988 with her then manager, Dave Wolff and has been married to actor David Thornton since 1991.

Cyndi Lauper has openly discussed her psoriasis, including in advertisements for Cosentyx.

Cyndi Lauper has been an LGBT rights supporter throughout her career, campaigning for equality through various charities and gay pride events around the world.

Cyndi Lauper stated that she became involved in gay rights advocacy because her sister Ellen is a lesbian and because Cyndi Lauper herself was passionate about equality.

Cyndi Lauper co-founded the True Colors tour for Human Rights throughout the United States and Canada in June 2007.

Cyndi Lauper set up the True Colors Residence in New York City for LGBT homeless youths.

In December 2022, Cyndi Lauper performed her song True Colors at the ceremony where US President Joe Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law.

Cyndi Lauper was described by AllMusic's Lindsay Planer as "an iconoclastic vocalist who revolutionized the role of women in rock and roll".

Cyndi Lauper is the first woman to win a Tony solo for Best Score.

Cyndi Lauper won one award from 14 nominations, the first Best Female Video.