Cyndi Lauper Sings ‘Time After Time’ With Sam Smith On Farewell Tour – Billboard

Three days after former president/criminal Donald Trump held a race-baiting revenge rally at Madison Square Garden, Cyndi Lauper — music icon and LGBTQ and women’s rights advocate — tried to clear the air at the iconic New York venue on Wednesday (30 October) during her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun farewell tour.

“It was about time [women] let’s start stepping forward and voting for ourselves. We need equality – and I’m not going to back down, that’s for sure,” she said earlier in the evening, before hinting at Sunday night’s MAGA rally: “We need a lot of love here tonight to dispel a lot of the hate, who was here I didn’t mean to say that, but then I did,” she added unapologetically. And she’s also putting her money on the line by donating proceeds from wig sales at her merch table to her Girls Just Want Basic Rights fund at the Tides Foundation, which raises funds for “safe and legal abortions … women’s health, prenatal care, postpartum care, cancer screenings — women’s health.

The EGT-winning Billboard Hot 100-topping music icon has never shied away from being politically, creatively and musically outspoken—and the world has been better for it. So while Cyndi Lauper’s farewell tour is a bittersweet affair (one audience member furiously screamed “no!” when she talked about this being her last major road trip), you can’t blame her for wanting to go out while is still in peak musical form.

At 71, Lauper has lost none of her distinctive vocal power. She roared through “She Bop,” belted out “I Drove All Night” with 100 mph gusto, and brilliantly weaved through her vocally fragile but great cover of Prince’s “When You Were Mine.” For those ’80s classics, her band—led by music director William Whitman, who played on her career-launching classic debut She is so unusual (1983) – wisely hewn close to the original arrangements, bringing a crackling new wave to the material rather than trying to remake them through a modern lens. When you hear these songs, you want those floating synths, clicking percussion, and jaunty guitars—not to mention the gorgeous recorder solo on “She Bop,” which Lauper herself performed on stage.

Having such a tight and well-oiled band also gave Lauper the freedom to stretch out vocally and let loose physically—which was abundantly clear toward the end of a stunning “Money Changes Everything,” where she hammered out various riffs in the chorus while writhing on the ground.

Lauper’s set list doesn’t skimp on the hits, but half the fun of the show is her casual banter, delivered in that indelible, no-BS Brooklyn way. “I still can’t parallel park for the hell of it,” she joked after “I’ve Been Driving All Night”; while sharing a story about a famous actor who told her he was a big fan of Goonies, she assured the crowd she would never drop the name, then paused significantly and said “Andrew Garfield” before singing the bouncy “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough”; and when introducing “I’m Gonna Be Strong,” a Gene Pitney cover she sang with her band before Blue Angel fame, she joked that she struggled to understand the song before learning the right key changes: “I tried to sing like him and I sounded like Ethel Merman. Rolling her eyes, pulling faces and spouting one-liners out of the corner of her mouth, Lauper is a naturally funny person who effortlessly commands an audience’s attention. (It’s a shame the 1988 adventure comedy vibrationsin which she starred alongside Jeff Goldblum and Peter Falk, was a box office flop because she’s really fantastic in it—you can’t help but wish she’d done more work on the big screen.)

Like so many funny people, Lauper can also use humor to help deliver an emotional punch. “Can you imagine if men could get pregnant?” she asked before singing “Sally’s Pigeons,” a harrowing, real-life inspired tale of a back-alley abortion that ends in death. “What did Gloria Steinem say? That would be a sacrament. Eyes also sparkled during “True Colors,” which Lauper performed on a small stage in the middle of the arena as a colorful scarf curled in the air; her extended pause after delivering the “fear not” lyrics at the end was especially poignant.

And of course, “Time After Time” had more than a few people wiping their eyes — not to mention jaws dropped when surprise guest Sam Smith came out to join Lauper at the Hot 100 No. 1, blending their sweet tones with her restrained, emotional delivery. (Smith watched the rest of the show completely enthralled by the side of the stage.)

The show ended, naturally, with “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” which Lauper performed in a red polka dot outfit by Yayoi Kusama. After singing the line about “boys [who] take a beautiful girl and hide her away from the rest of the world” and wailing “I wanna be the one to walk in the sun,” Lauper added a fitting post-Roe lyrical update: “Everybody wants to have basic rights.” Before leading the fans in a final sing-along of the chorus, she urged the crowd to give it their all: “Say it loud enough to get rid of all the bad energy in here,” she shouted, smiling. Based on the vibrancy, power and joy she brought to MSG on Wednesday, it’s safe to say the storied Manhattan arena went through the musical equivalent of sage burning, smoking and rededication under her watch.