by Bambi Weavil (Twitter, Facebook)
Cyndi Lauper (Twitter, Facebook), one of the most well-known pop stars in American Pop Culture of the last 30 years, performed the blues to a near-sold out crowd at the House of Blues in Myrtle Beach, SC on July 31st. The crowd was mixed all across the board from young to older, straight to gay, everyone wanted to see Cyndi entertain and entertain she did.
Cyndi donned red hair, and a black polka-dotted outfit with black heels, and she looked amazing. The most impressive part of Cyndi’s showmanship is her stamina and connection with the crowd. She took almost no breaks during her entire set and was constantly moving across the stage, completely charming, sometimes reaching out to touch the fans on her back, and dancing. Cyndi performed nearly all her songs from her latest release and the #1 blues album currently in the US, Memphis Blues. It could be considered a music risk for her, knowing her audience is used to her being a pop performer, however her versatility was obvious and appreciated by the SC crowd. I was already a fan of the album, but I really understood what it meant to her seeing tears in her eyes at one point, and how well she could pull off the blues by seeing her perform live. Cyndi is another one of those entertainers you really can’t appreciate how great she is until you see her live.
Cyndi had a cute moment with a fan named Joy (like Cyndi quipped ‘like Joy to the World’) who handed her a photo of her ‘being Cyndi Lauper’ at 12-years old, which Cyndi signed (very nice long-time Cyndi fans I made friends with in line told me that’s rare for her to sign anything during the show since she’s working). Cyndi joked of how she showed up as herself as Halloween, won and how she didn’t keep the prize money. Cyndi is always entertaining, even when she goes into a tangent about how eating grits is bad for you because of carbs or when a fan jokingly requested “Freebird” she giggled, saying how she didn’t do it as a cover band and wasn’t going to do it now.
One of the rare songs Cyndi performed was the gorgeous “Who Let in the Rain” and “Don’t Want To Cry.” Cyndi did perform some of her standards, including “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” which the crowd completely erupted for, as well as “Time After Time” which seemed to visibly move Cyndi as the crowd sang along to her standards. It was “True Colors” into ‘Power To The People” for the encore that personally touched my heart, knowing all the advocacy work she does and sincerely means for the gay community (I Give a Damn! Cyndi Lauper’s Campaign Against Injustice Toward the Gay Community). Many of us had “a moment” knowing that is basically “our song.”
Highly recommend seeing Cyndi Lauper perform whenever you can especially in an intimate setting like the House of Blues where she gives it her heart and soul, and as she said, the best blues are also meant to uplift and she left everyone feeling uplifted.
>> Our 2007 interview with Cyndi Lauper: Stand Together, Love Each Other
(Out Impact has an gay online radio station!: Out Impact Radio - click here to listen)
3 Comments