Lauper takes stage with teen street singers
CHARLOTTE, N.C. Overnight, two North Carolina teenagers went from singing on a street corner to sharing a stage with Grammy Award-winning singer Cyndi Lauper.
Mya Worley, 14, was singing on a city street last Friday with her 13-year-old brother Ronald on the keyboard, as they have done all summer under their father’s guidance, The Charlotte Observer reported.
Two women stopped to listen and one suggested they had to get the teens “to play tomorrow.”
With Lauper standing nearby, manager Lisa Barbaris approached Ronald Worley Sr. and asked if his kids would sing Lauper’s 1983 hit Girls Just Want to Have Fun with the pop singer at a concert.
Less than 24 hours later, the siblings were at the 20,000-seat Spectrum Center.
Mya sang the first verse and chorus of the song, which was rearranged by Lauper and Mya to be an almost-gospel-hymn-like number.
The only musical accompaniment for her portion was Ronald Jr. on a keyboard.
The crowd roared as Mya held the last note, then gave way to Lauper and the well-known upbeat version.
As thrilled as Mya and Ronald Jr. were by the experience, it was their father who may have got the biggest thrill.
“I’m an ’80s child,” Ronald Sr. said.
“I grew up listening to her music. I always loved Cyndi Lauper. ... So this was just incredible. I tell you, it was so incredible . ... Cyndi wrote some things down on paper for us, so I have a piece of paper with her handwriting on it that we’ll never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever lose.”