Cyndi Lauper

Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper (born June 22, 1953) is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album. The Top 5 hits "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", "She Bop", "All Through the Night" and number-one single "Time After Time" became some of the most important and influential singles of the 80s. The album earned Lauper two 27th Grammy Awards in 1985, including Best New Artist. She continued success with their follow-up, True Colors, which launched several more hits including the number-one single "True Colors", and earned her two nominations at 29th Grammy Awards. Lauper has since released 11 albums, her most recent the acclaimed grammy nominated Memphis Blues which was Billboards biggest selling blues album of 2010. Lauper has also released over 40 singles, and as of 2011 had sold more than more 50 million records worldwide, and 1 million DVDs and 20 million singles. Throughout her career, Lauper has won numerous awards, including Grammy, Emmy, MTV VMA, Billboard and AMA, which makes her one of the best selling artists of all time. In 1999, Lauper ranked #58 of the 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll by VH1 and In 2008 she was elected by the British tabloid The Sun ranked #4 of the Singer Who Will Never Be Forgotten at All Times, according to a survey conducted in the same year.
The daughter of Fred and Catrine Lauper, Cyndi Lauper was born and raised in Ozone Park in a Roman Catholic family, in the borough of Queens in New York City. Her mother uses the stage name "Catrine Dominique" for the music videos in which she has appeared. Her father was of German and Swiss descent and her mother is Italian American (from Sicily). She has an older sister, Ellen, and a younger brother, Fred (nicknamed Butch).

After Lauper's parents divorced, her mother remarried, divorced again, and went to work as a waitress. It was during this time that Lauper began listening to artists such as Judy Garland, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and the Beatles. Her mother encouraged her independence and creativity. At the age of twelve, Lauper learned how to play an acoustic guitar, which her sister had given to her, and she started to write her own lyrics. She had a great love of art and music and tried to find ways to express herself. Even at this early age, Lauper started dyeing her hair different colors and wearing radical fashions. Lauper was accepted in a special public high school for students with talent in the visual arts, but she was held back and eventually dropped out, earning her GED sometime later. At the age of seventeen, she left home, planning to study art. Her journey would take her to Canada, where she spent two weeks in the woods with her dog, Sparkle, trying to find herself. She eventually wound up in Vermont, where she took art classes at Johnson State College. She supported herself by working at various odd jobs.

In the mid 1970s, Lauper performed as a vocalist with various cover bands (such as Doc West and Flyer, who still perform under the names Gap Wilson Band and Red, White and Blues Band), in the New York metropolitan area, singing hits by bands such as Jefferson Airplane, Led Zeppelin, and Bad Company. Even though Lauper was now performing on stage, she was not happy singing cover songs. In 1977, Lauper damaged her vocal cords and took a year off. She was told by three doctors that she would never sing again. Vocal coach Katie Agresta helped Lauper regain her voice by teaching her proper vocal exercises.

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