Follow the sequins, technicolor tutu skirts and bewigged heads lining up outside of Tinley Park’s Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre, and you’ve found the gates welcoming you to firebrand Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour.”
With over 50 years in the industry — collecting Grammy, Emmy and Tony awards and a 2025 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — and just beyond the 40 years since the release of her debut album, 1983’s “She’s So Unusual,” the most eccentric of pop’s powerhouses gave a final bow on the second leg of her last arena tour for a packed house Tuesday night. She reveled in her biggest hits, funniest stories, and a grand production that she said has been decades of dreams and persistence in the making.
Ahead of this tour, which resumed in July after kicking off in October 2024, Lauper assured fans she’s not entirely retiring, but wanted to experience saying goodbye while she was still strong and healthy enough to travel and deal with all the “planes, trains and automobiles” that come with touring the world.
“No matter how big the chapter that came before was, you gotta keep going,” she told the crowd of her views on this next phase. “There’s so many chapters of your life.”
Backed by a seven-piece band, Lauper’s distinctive style and vocals transported thousands of all ages and gender expressions during her 15-song set. From the opening rush of synthesizers on “She Bop,” she proved she’s the girl still having the best time.
For fans and friends Kimber Watkins, Jason Hill and Danny Beagles, those classic songs and quintessential, Brooklyn-bred gumption were exactly what they wanted.
“I saw her in the ’80s… probably around ‘She’s So Unusual,’” recalled Watkins, 57, who was attending in part as an early birthday celebration. “[That concert] was one of the first times that we camped out to get the tickets and all that, back in the day when that was a thing. It was neat. I had the original outfit,” she said, displaying her “updated” ’80s-inspired look, complete with lime green, fingerless, fishnet gloves and full skirt.
“I love ‘Time After Time.’ I loved her videos, I learned all the motions,” she laughed.
The show marked the first time Beagles, 40, was seeing Lauper, but he noted her song from cult film “The Goonies” was what he was most looking forward to.
“I’m really excited. I’m with a couple veterans here, so they can tell me what to look forward to, but it’s an honor to be here to help her celebrate the last time,” he said. “‘The Goonies’ song was such a formidable part of my childhood. Every time I watch that movie, it’s something special.”
Hill, a teacher (along with Watkins) who was using the concert as a final summer fling before the new school year starts next week, shared that he’ll miss Lauper’s longtime human rights advocacy.
“She’s a gay icon. She helped me come out of the closet,” Hill shared. “It’s very inspiring to see the Human Rights Campaign here, and Planned Parenthood, and the League of Women Voters. I’m really going to miss Cyndi Lauper. I’m sad to see her go, but I’m so glad to be here. The attitude, the aesthetic. ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ — it’s absolutely become a rallying cry.”
As attendees took their seats, they were greeted by DJ Tracy Young ahead of tour opener (and “America’s Got Talent” season seven contestant) Jake Wesley Rogers, whose cheeky, glam-rock cabaret included lots of twirling and a devastating cover of The Pretenders’ “I’ll Stand By You” dedicated to his mother.
Approaching the nine o’clock hour, Blondie’s “One Way or Another” shot from the speakers. Taking the stage to a brief sizzle reel of her memorable career moments, Lauper wasted no time getting right into the thick of it. With three, mega numbers in a row — “She Bop” (which was ahead of its time sonically and lyrically), the much-beloved “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough,” and her nu-wave rendition of “I Drove All Night” (originally popularized by the late Roy Orbison and after Lauper, Celine Dion) — emotions on and off stage were high.
Though inextricably linked to her iconic heyday — during which Cyndi Lauper became the first female artist to achieve four top-five hits on the Billboard Hot 100 with her debut release — her raw talent and accolades don’t go as highly remarked upon as those of her peers beyond the end of the neon decade.
She continued collecting Grammy awards for rock and dance recordings throughout the 1990s. In 2010, her album “Memphis Blues” became Billboard’s most successful blues album of the year, remaining at number one on the Billboard Blues Albums chart for 13 consecutive weeks. In 2013, she won the Tony Award for “Best Original Score” for composing the Broadway musical “Kinky Boots,” making her the first woman to win the category by herself. She was welcomed into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2015.
While she became a bona fide (albeit can’t-miss) opener for the likes of Cher and Rod Stewart for a few years, this international farewell tour marks her first headlining run in a decade. And she left it all on stage.
At-times meandering storytelling aside, it’s the mix of Lauper’s fierce, unpolished personality (which she often attributed to being Italian, ”half Sicilian,” she corrected herself, and “working” on her people skills) and evocative music that left fans hanging on her every word. Through tales of growing up within an immigrant family, significant impact on bringing the WWE mainstream, hilarious observations on tour fashion, and affirmations of perseverance and embracing the unknown, each song became much more than a song but a living snapshot of her survival.
One that has always been politically-minded. The show was unapologetically charged with feminism, justice and liberty for all.
“I always thought about injustices and what didn’t seem fair,” Lauper said before introducing the track “Sally’s Pigeons.” “I’ve always just wanted the same civil liberties as any man.”
More Top Picks Winter Will Never Pleasant For Shower But We Can Make It Pleasant With The 8 Best Electric Tankless Water Heaters
During a musical break in “True Colors,” she stood above a fan waving the LGBTQIA+ flag high above her head.
Slight vocal cracking challenged her throughout the night, which Lauper attributed to a lingering cold, but it was nothing a little throat spray couldn’t help mask to tackle such octave-jumping songs like “Who Let in the Rain,” the electroclash club banger “Into the Nightlife,” dancey “Change of Heart,” and eternal ballad “Time After Time,” which left the amphitheater aglow with cellphone light. Where it made sense, she embraced the bit of grit, letting it rip during a duet with Rogers on “Money Changes Everything.” By the time the three-song encore neared its end and the anticipation for her signature “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” reached its peak, it was hard not to feel… a lot.
Originally written and performed by singer-songwriter Robert Hazard in 1979, the never-officially-released demo depicted a man enjoying casual sex, with lyrics celebrating the freedom of a male lifestyle. With Hazard’s permission, Lauper dramatically rewrote the track, transforming it into a feminist statement emphasizing female desire, exuberance and assertiveness.
In 2017, after seeing international protests in response to the first election of Donald Trump, Lauper told “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert she began seeing women carrying signs that read “Girls Just Want to Have Fundamental Rights,” adopting the track as a protest anthem. Lauper released a limited run of t-shirts decorated with the slogan, donating proceeds to Planned Parenthood and True Colors United. In response to the overturning of Roev. Wade in 2022, she launched the Girls Just Want to Have Fundamental Rights Fund to “financially support women’s issues in an inclusive way,” housed at the Tides Foundation.
“Some boys take a beautiful girl and hide her away from the rest of the world,” Lauper belted as her audience joined along. “I want to be the one to walk in the sun,” she sang before handing hook duties over to the fans.
Despite this goodbye, the sun is far from setting on the undeniable uniqueness and spirit that is Cyndi Lauper.
Jessi Roti is a freelance writer.