Cyndi Lauper is ready to set out on her final tour.
On Tuesday, ET’s Denny Directo spoke with the 70-year-old singer from the Los Angeles premiere of Let the Canary Sing— the documentary exploring her rise to fame and her prolific career — and she provided a scoop on her recently announced Girls Just Want to Have Fun Tour, a 23-city adventure that begins later this year.
Between getting older and the fact that she hasn’t had the opportunity to perform in arenas in four decades, Lauper, who launched her career in 1983, says that now feels like the perfect time to tour.
“I honestly, I want to do an arena tour. I haven’t done one since the ’80s and I feel I’m in good shape,” the “True Colors” singer said. “I feel strong enough to do a really good job.”
Lauper added that developments in technology have empowered her to put on a tour and take it to another level.
Cyndi Lauper at her footprint and handprint ceremony in Hollywood on June 4, 2024 – Getty Images
“There’s so many innovative things going on with, you know, with staging and lighting and AI,” she said, adding, “For me, the idea of perhaps using it [artificial intelligence] to create art is incredible…that is what kind of is exciting me.”
All in all, she landed on a nearly two-dozen city tour across the U.S. and Canada, kicking off in Quebec in October and ending with a December stop in Chicago. It’s her last tour as she says her life has gotten too hectic to try and do something similar in the future. Aside from singing, she has previously lent her talents to shows like Central Park, The Horror of Dolores Roach and Young Sheldon, according to her IMDB.
“Now is the time to do it and I can’t write for shows and then go out for tour, I just can’t. So this is it for me,” Lauper — whose other major hits include songs like “Time After Time” and “All Through the Night” — said.
While she has yet to announce any openers or guests, the tour’s Live Nation page promises exciting surprises for those in attendance. Lauper told ET that she’s hoping this farewell tour will give fans some much-needed fun and resilience as her touring career comes to a close.
“People need hope and you got to give them hope and you got to give people some redemption, you know? I’m a big one for that, so for this tour, it’s a celebration and it’s gonna be fun,” she said. “This tour is gonna be fun.”
“I want to say thank you to everybody,” Lauper continued. “[Say goodbye to] the people that stayed with me and listened and I would like to say goodbye to everybody. I’m gonna go all around the world just one more time.”
As for her other project, her documentary — which was previously featured at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2023 — the singer, actress and composer called it a “full-circle” moment to be able to celebrate the film with the world after years of patiently waiting for it to come to fruition.
According to a description, the film follows Lauper’s decade-spanning career and her cultural impact as an icon of feminism and human rights. It’s a project that is near and dear to her heart and one she can’t wait for fans to enjoy.
While she admits that the film is about her, Lauper says it’s really director Alison Ellwood’s movie. Lauper says that she is just glad she found someone so passionate and perfect to tell her life story in the way that she had always hoped, even if (spoiler alert) she lives at the end — her words, not ours!
Watch the trailer for the film in the player below:
Let the Canary Sing is now streaming on Paramount+.
