Cyndi Lauper sang “When You Were Mine,” her synthful Prince cover from her 1983 debut “She’s So Unusual.”It was a reminder that, at 71, she had outlived other ’80s music icons such as Prince, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and George Michael.And for the first time since her 1986 “True Colors” tour, the New York native was playing her hometown arena again.
Who would’ve thought it would take her 38 years to get back there?But while Lauper never again reached the heights of her ’80s superstardom — her last Top 10 hit was 1989’s “I Drove All Night” — she has survived and evolved: She went from winning a Grammy for Best New Artist in 1985 to winning a Tony for Best Original Score for “Kinky Boots” in 2013.And now she is riding the wave of nostalgia for her pop career that has included a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination, her documentary “Let the Canary Sing” and a “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” sample by Nicki Minaj (on “Pink Friday Girls”).Seizing her moment to play arenas again on this farewell tour — although that doesn’t mean she is retiring from music or live performance — Lauper is unwinding the second hand back to her glory days.And when she took the stage at a sold-out Garden to “She Bop” — her giddy ode to masturbation that riled up the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) as one of its “Filthy Fifteen” in 1985 — she was that punky rebel celebrating the joys of self-pleasure with her hiccuping vocal ticks that are singularly Cyndi.Maybe she couldn’t pull that off in another few years, but she still can now.
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