Cyndi Lauper Shows Sydney Her True Colours
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Sunday, March 6, 2011
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Cyndi Lauper is touring the country this month in support of her latest album, Memphis Blues. Released last year, its a collection of blues covers and features appearances by seminal artists such as BB King, Jonny Lang, Allen Toussaint, Ann Peebles and Charlie Musselwhite. When she was last in Sydney in 2008, she was the headline and final act at the Mardi Gras Party. She donned a yellow Marie Antoinette confection to sing "Same Ol' Story from her album Bring Ya To The Brink, followed by a newly-remixed version of her 1983 classic 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun'. Rumour has it that when Lauper turned up for her costume fitting prior to the performance, she was mortified by the fact that it was yellow. "Well I didn't want to look like a big fat banana babe," Lauper exclaims. "But it was fine - we worked it out so it was nice on me. I had such a great time - the guys, the dancers, and oh my god the wig was awesome!"
Suffice to say. Lauper's status as a gay icon is well-established. Her 1983 album She's So Unusual was a magnet for the gays, who latched onto its camp, empowering anthems like moths to a flame(r). She's been performing at gay pride events since 1994 when she headlined the closing ceremony of the Gay Games in New York City. "I performed 'Girls Just Want To Have Fun' with what felt like a hundred drag queens," Lauper laughs. "I was so amazed at their shoes and everything else, I couldn't stop looking and forgot to count. I got a fat lip that night because I copped a headdress in the mouth!" But Lauper was upset by the way the organisers treated the drag queens. "I noticed that on the Jumbotron [big screen], they weren't showing any of the drag queens, and it really pissed me off," she says. "So I decided I could do something about it - if they're not going to show them, I will make these gays famous. I'm going to get to know them."
Lauper is clearly a woman of her word, and has since become one of the most important and prolific gay rights activists in the world. In 2007, she created the True Colours Tour, an annual concert series that benefits the Human Rights Campaign and other GLBT organisations. It has featured influential artists such as Deborah Harry, The Dresden Dolls, Erasure, Rufus Wainwright, The Gossip, and Margaret Cho, who acted as MC. Moreover, last year Lauper launched the Give a Damn campaign, which aims to rally straight people to stand up with the GLBT community to stop discrimination.
Lauper also teamed up with Lady Gaga last year for the MAC Viva Glam campaign for AIDS awareness. The two were a match made in outlandish heaven. "She likes the artsy stuff like I do," Lauper muses. "But she does her own thing. It's performance art, which I appreciate. She's like Grace Jones - but she's also like Madonna and Bowie. That's the job of any young artist though - to look at the world around them and take it in, figure it out, and translate it."
Cyndi will appear live in concert at
State Theatre, Market Street, Sydney
Thursday March 31 and Friday April 1
Bookings via Ticketmaster
Source: SX News
Filed Under: Pictures
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