Historical Figure
Cyndi Lauper
b. 1953
American singer-songwriter and actress (born 1953)
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Biography
Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Known for her distinctive image, featuring a variety of hair colors and eccentric clothing, and for her powerful four-octave vocal range, Lauper has sold over 50 million records worldwide. She has also been celebrated for her humanitarian work, particularly as an advocate for LGBTQ rights in the United States.
Timeline
The story of Cyndi Lauper, told in moments.
Born Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents divorced when she was five. She started singing at 12, using her mother's acoustic guitar to teach herself.
Released She's So Unusual, the first debut album by a woman to produce four top-five singles. "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" became a feminist anthem. "Time After Time" hit No. 1.
Won the Grammy for Best New Artist and Best Female Video at the first MTV Video Music Awards. She was 31.
Wrote the music for the Broadway musical Kinky Boots. It won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical. She was the first solo woman to win the Tony for Best Score.
Founded True Colors United, an organization addressing homelessness among LGBTQ youth. Lauper has been one of the most vocal celebrity advocates for LGBTQ rights since the 1990s.
In Their Own Words (3)
"...I'm a recovering Catholic. … There's, y'know, the Sisters of Charity, the Sisters of Mercy, and it just so happens that I was with the Sisters of No Charity and No Mercy at All."
"When you take a group of people and you repress them and they cut themselves off from their feelings as a human - and a human being has sexual feelings, has bodily feelings - what you are handing over to children is a monster. Because if you are not connected to who you are in your heart, and you don't understand and have compassion for yourself, how in the wide world of sports are you gonna have compassion with forty screaming children?", 1996
"It is not a dirty word, "feminism." I just think that women belong in the human population with the same rights as everybody else. … The problem is, "A feminist looks like this, or is like that." We are taught not to like ourselves as women, we are taught what we're supposed to look like, what our measurements are supposed to be. I never hear what measurements men are supposed to be. Just women."
1996
on tolerance of gays: "You always have to remember - no matter what you're told - that God loves all the flowers, even the wild ones that grow on the side of the highway."
1996
Artifacts (15)
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