I still remember the CBS guy delivering Cyndi Lauper’s debut album ‘She’s So Unusual’ to EON-FM, the radio station I was working at in 1983. ‘She’s So Unusual’ was released on 14 October 1983, the same day as Lionel Richie’s ‘Can’t Slow Down’ and The Jam’s greatest hits album ‘Snap!’. It came out in the same week as Culture Club’s ‘Color By Numbers’. Those were the days when something important was happening every week with new music.
42 years later I’m sitting at Rod Laver Arena seeing Cyndi for the (maybe) last time. How time flies!
I remember how ‘She’s So Unusual’ screamed its arrival. Radio was equally innovative at the time. Six of the 10 tracks on that record were played. It didn’t matter then if they were singles or not. If there was a great track on an album, radio played it. That innovation died long ago.
Cyndi Lauper has been a big deal in Australia for all of those 42 years. She mentioned she broke in Australia before America. She really is so unusual in deciding to call it quits at 71 when so many before her are still going strong, but hey, she earned her retirement.
Just as that first record screamed its arrival so did Cyndi on the first show of her farewell Australian tour in Melbourne. This show was all things bright and beautiful from the Blondie ‘One Way Or Another’ intro to the exploding rainbow of colour, the Cyndi launching with a big gun of her own ‘She Bop’ off that first record.
This was a nostalgia show but it didn’t feel like it. It is very contemporary with lighting screens and Cyndi’s costume changes making the two hours fly by. It was colourful, with all those wigs (which are available from her store with proceeds to the fundamental rights of women and girls worldwide). There were so many costume changes, a couple were even done on stage. This show had momentum.
There is a lot of Cyndi talk in this show. Cyndi shares some incredible stories of her amazing career. She said she considered moving to Australia in the late 80s but couldn’t organise it. Noiseworks’ Jon Stevens is a good mate of Cyndi’s and I might need to get his side of the stories she was telling last night when next I talk to him. She talked a lot about “chapters”. How each part of your life is a chapter and had one of her chapters not closed she never would have met her husband. “I try and sing songs from where I’m from because that’s important to the story,” she said later. She often came across as the wise old elder passing on her knowledge.
Her major issue is civil liberties. That should be the number one important cause for any American right now as civil liberties are being ripped in record time under the “dictator on day one”.
There were some surprises. Tones and I joined Cyndi for ‘Time After Time’. The opening act The Veronicas came back for ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’.
Cyndi Lauper setlist, Melbourne, 2 April 2025
She Bop (from She’s So Unusual, 1983)
The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough (from the soundtrack The Goonies, 1983)
When You Were Mine (from She’s So Unusual, 1983)
I Drove All Night (from A Night To Remember, 1989)
Who Let in the Rain (from Hat Full Of Stars, 1993)
Iko Iko (from True Colors, 1986)
Funnel of Love (from Detour, 2016)
Sally’s Pigeons (from Hat Full Of Stars, 1993)
I’m Gonna Be Strong (from Twelve Deadly Cyns … and Then Some, 1994)
Sisters of Avalon (from Sisters of Avalon, 1996)
Change of Heart (from True Colors, 1986)
Time After Time (from She’s So Unusual, 1983) (with Tones and I)
Money Changes Everything (from She’s So Unusual, 1983)
Encore:
Shine (from Shine, 2004)
True Colors (from True Colors, 1986)
Girls Just Want to Have Fun (from She’s So Unusual, 1983) (with The Veronicas)
After Australia and Japan, Cyndi will head back to North America for dates through to August 30 when the tour concludes at the Hollywood Bowl.
It is called the ‘Farewell Tour’. No-one believes that anymore anyway. Cyndi just needs to have a “I’ll have what they are having” and point to a KISS and Cher poster and she can reactivate anytime in the future.
CYNDI LAUPER 2025 FAREWELL TOUR – AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES
MELBOURNE – Wednesday 2ND April – Rod Laver Arena
BRISBANE – Saturday 5th April – Entertainment Centre
NEWCASTLE – Monday 7th April – Entertainment Centre
SYDNEY – Tuesday 8th April – Qudos Bank Arena
ADELAIDE – Thursday 10th April – Entertainment Centre
PERTH – Saturday 12th April – RAC Arena
Tickets are on sale now from www.ticketek.com.au
https://www.tegdainty.com/tour/cyndilauper2025/
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