Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Canary’ sings an eclectic song
NEW YORK – We all know the hits. In a six-year span of the 1980s, Cyndi Lauper gave us some of the most indelible pop songs of the last half-century including “Girls Just Want To Have Fun,” “Time After Time,” “True Colors,” and “I Drove All Night.” But as Lauper tells it, she never presumes to know what people will like.
“Oh, my God. Everything’s underrated – and everything’s overrated!” Lauper, 69, told USA TODAY recently, speaking before the Tribeca Festival premiere of “Let the Canary Sing,” a new documentary about her life.
“Some stuff is supported, and the stuff that isn’t, you still need to put it out,” she continued. “I remember one year at the Grammys, this group from Canada turned around and said to me that they loved ‘Hat Full of Stars,’ and that inspired them. You never know what people are listening to. Another group said, ‘Oh, “Sisters of Avalon,” that was my jam.’ ”
One song that should’ve been a smash is “Ballad of Cleo and Joe,” a thumping club track about a drag queen’s double life. The song, released in 1997, never cracked the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.
At the time, Lauper was nine months pregnant with Declyn, her son with husband David Thornton. For the video, she had the idea to decorate her pregnant belly to look like a disco ball.
“You know, it was supposed to just be an interview,” Lauper recalled of the impromptu shoot. “And I said, ‘Listen, if you could get a small turntable, and if we could just put mirrors on (me) like a mirror ball, then we could just shoot that and it’d be really interesting.’”
Given she was in her third trimester, some people worried she might give birth on camera.
“In the edit bay, the guys were mortified,” Lauper said with a laugh. “They were like, ‘Lady, please!’ They wouldn’t even look at me because they were afraid I was going to have the baby.”
Directed by Alison Ellwood (“Laurel
Cyndi Lauper performs at the Mission Estate Winery on April 8 in New Zealand.
Canyon”), “Let the Canary Sing” traces the eclectic stage and screen career of Lauper, who earned a best new artist Grammy following the explosive success of her 1983 debut album “She’s So Unusual.” In addition to her many career milestones – including a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination this past year – the New York native has been a tireless advocate for LGBTQ+ and women’s rights.
“She’s just a humanitarian at heart. It comes through in her music and in her causes,” Ellwood said on the red carpet.
Sporting lilac hair and a bird-patterned suit, Lauper performed a lively six-song set of fan favorites after the screening, which was held at the Beacon Theatre on New York’s Upper West Side.
“When I was first approached, I said, ‘A documentary? I’m not dead yet!’” Lauper said on stage before the film. “But if anybody was going to tell my story – the good, the bad and the ugly; the missteps and the good steps; the triumphs and the not-so-triumphant – it would be Alison Ellwood. She’s a wonderful filmmaker. I feel honored.”
The singer is hard at work adapting Melanie Griffith’s 1988 comedy “Working Girl” for the stage, with playwright Theresa Rebeck (NBC’s “Smash”) and director Christopher Ashley (Broadway’s “Come From Away”).