Cyndi Lauper shows CU1 Amphitheatre “True Colors” in “Girls Just Want To Have Fun Farewell”

Photos provided by Taylor Hill and Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

The news of Cyndi Lauper retiring from the road is certainly bittersweet, but at least it’s accompanied by the globetrotting “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell” Tour that just so happens to coincide with a 2025 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.

Believe it or not, the pop superstar is now 72 and has surely earned the right to rest after being a defining female force of 1980s, rivaled only by Madonna, followed by reinventing herself throughout the 1990s as an acclaimed singer/songwriter who since went on to conquer Broadway, blues, standards and country.

In other words, the Grammy Award-winner paved the way for the likes of Chappell Roan and practically everyone else a little left of center in between, not only as a musical trailblazer, but also as an activist, especially for women’s and queer equality.

Several of those shades were on display during two hours inside Tinley Park’s comfortably crowded Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre, where Lauper, a five-piece band and two backing singers opened with the sexually-charged “She Bop.”

The headliner was soon shouting out the “Rock ‘N’ Wrestling” connection she help established, decades before Jelly Roll got in the ring, to introduce the similarly goofy greatness of “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough” as the vintage video clip played above.

Only an artist as varied as Lauper could then pivot to “I Drove All Night,” later covered by Celine Dion and recast as an empowerment anthem, step convincingly “Into The Nightlife” and then strip it all down for the autobiographical ballad “Sally’s Pigeons,” prefaced by a character-filled story about what it was like growing up part Italian in a blue collar neighborhood of New York.

Along the way, there were as many costume changes as longtime tour mate Cher, ranging from the glamorous to the alternative or extremely understated, complete with a camera chronicling one particularly complicated yet comedy-filled transition.

Much more than merely the MTV novelty she was branded at the beginning, Lauper came across closer to an avant-garde David Bowie disciple who mounted an art installation, whose screens and lighting concepts ingeniously adorned even the unapologetically commercial “Change Of Heart,” “Time After Time” and “Money Changes Everything.”

As has become increasingly customary, “True Colors” was a rallying cry supporting marginalized communities and featured a flag of inclusivity flying high, plus “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” naturally brought it all to a fabulous, full-circle conclusion for a timeless cultural icon finally getting her flowers.

For additional information on Cyndi Lauper, visit CyndiLauper.com.

Upcoming concert highlights at Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre include Rod Stewart (Aug. 8); Toto, Christopher Cross and Men At Work (Aug. 9); Big Time Rush (Aug. 10); Nelly (Aug. 13); Billy Idol (Aug. 14); Kidz Bop Live (Aug. 15); The Offspring (Aug. 16); $uicideboy$ (Aug. 17); Volbeat (Aug. 22); Styx, Kevin Cronin and Don Felder (Aug. 23); Lil Wayne (Aug. 24); Jonas Brothers (Aug. 26); Falling In Reverse (Aug. 30); The Doobie Brothers (Sept. 10); Jason Aldean (Sept. 13); Conan Gray (Sept. 14); Twenty One Pilots (Sept. 24); Papa Roach and Rise Against (Sept. 27); Parker McCollum (Oct. 4) and Judas Priest and Alice Cooper (Oct. 5). For additional details, visit LiveNation.com.

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Cyndi Lauper shows CU1 Amphitheatre “True Colors” in “Girls Just Want To Have Fun Farewell”

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