Cyndi Lauper Returns to MSG Farewell Tour: Review

During the third number of her “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” farewell tour at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night Cyndi Lauper sang “When You Were Mine,” her synthy Prince cover from her 1983 debut album, She’s So Unusual.

It was a reminder that, at 71, she has outlived other ’80s music icons such as Prince, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and George Michael.

And for the first time since the 1986 True Colors tour: New Yorker played again in her hometown arena. Who would have thought that it would take her 38 years to get back there?

But while Lauper never reached the heights of her ’80s superstardom (her last Top 10 hit was 1989’s “I Drove All Night”), she has survived and evolved, going from winning Best New Artist to the Grammys. in 1985 before the Tony Award. for Best Original Score for the film “Kinky Boots” in 2013.

And now she’s riding a wave of nostalgia for her pop career, which has included Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominationher documentary “Let the Canary Sing” and a sample of Nicki Minaj’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” (from Pink Friday Girls).

Taking advantage of the moment to play arenas again this farewell tour — although that doesn’t mean she’s retiring from music or live performance — Lauper is unwinding the second hand and returning to her glory days.

And when she took to the sold-out garden stage to “She Bop” – her giddy ode to masturbation that angered the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Centre) as one of its “Filthy Fifteen” in 1985 – she was that punk rebel . celebrating the joy of self-pleasure with her hiccupping vocal tics, which are especially unique to Cindy.

She might not be able to pull it off in a few years, but she still can now.

Then, when she started singing “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough,” her hit from “The Goonies” the soundtrack was a true 80s flashback, performed in her typically quirky style.

By the time she got to “Money Change Everything,” the rocking intro to “She’s So Unusual,” she summoned all the urgency of the young woman who had once sung her entire life. When at one point she rolled on the floor, it was hard to imagine that she could do this forever.

While Lauper’s biggest hits came on her first three albums, 1986’s She’s So Unusual. “True Colors” and 1989’s A Night to Remember, she didn’t miss a beat for the rest of her career. An outspoken feminist, she made a timely statement about abortion rights in the moving 1993 ballad “Sally’s Pigeons” and returned to her rockabilly roots in her 2016 cover of Wanda Jackson’s “Funnel of Love.”

And Lauper brought the crowd to its feet with her full-bodied high note at the end of “I’m Gonna Be Strong,” her remake of the 1964 Gene Pitney hit she originally sang with her pre-solo group Blue Angel.

From a vocal standpoint, there’s certainly no reason why Lauper should say goodbye. Her voice is still an instrument of nature’s power, one that can move from a whisper to a howl.

And her biggest hits – although “All Through the Night” was an odd omission – were as undeniable as ever. She invited surprise guest Sam Smith for a tender duet on “Time after time” her first No. 1 hit. When the iPhone lights illuminated MSG, it was a reminder of the impact she had on the LGBTQ+ community. fierce ally for many years.

Just like when she sang strange anthem In the encore, “True Colors,” she embraced the gay tagging tradition with her interpretive dance. There was some kind of mesmerizing beauty in it, as if she was summoning the souls of those who died from the AIDS epidemic with her rainbow flag.

Of course it all had to end “Girls just want to have fun.” Although the Garden’s 11 p.m. curfew seemed a little rushed, her signature bop didn’t lose any of its punch.

And Lauper, with her ageless effervescence, remained eternally girlish.