Cyndi Lauper

DAMN! I just started listening to Cyndi's new CD Bring Ya To The Brink and all I can say is DAMN! I scanned through the whole CD and so far, this CD is EXCELLENT...I mean FREAKING AWESOME! Great lyrics, awesome music and very groovy dance beats. It's very hard to listen to this without the rhythm causing your feet to start tapping. So far I have listened (over and over thanks to repeat) to Into the Nightlife (#2). This song is totally freaking awesome! It will definitely be playing on dance floors! Back with more after I finally take #2 off of repeat and listen to more of the CD. But so far that isn't going to happen! LOL

But all I can say about Cyndi, she is the total performer. I have seen her in concert twice now. The first time is when I went to see Cher in Chicago during her "Do You Believe?" tour. Cyndi was the opening act. She did 5 or 6 songs, closing with an electrifying Disco Inferno. But I bet 80% of her set was performed out in the audience. She was out there singing while dancing with the audience. She was simply amazing!

When Cher's Believe concert tour came through Champaign (where I live), I immediately bought some tickets, just so I could see Cyndi again! I could care less about Cher's part of the concert! I was heartbroken when instead of Cyndi, I found out Lou Bega (Mambo No. 5) would be the opening act!

A few years later, I heard Cher (now onto her Living Proof tour or also the Farewell tour) was going to be back in town. This time I waited until I found out Cyndi was opening before I bought tickets. At the time I was with Mikey. Mike was a HUGE music fan. And just like me, Mike was a child of the 80's. I told him about how awesome Cyndi was in concert and that she was going to be the opening act. We called up the box office and luckily got 2 floor tickets for the show.

I was a bit disappointed when we made it to the Assembly Hall for the concert. Yes, we were on the floor, but we were in the very last row of the floor seats (about 20 rows from the stage)! I know Mike was a bit disappointed because I had told him that Cyndi loves to perform in the audience. So the lights go down, the audience gets excited, energy is flowing through the air and the opening notes of the first song start up! As the lights go up, there is Cyndi on the stage as beautiful as ever! She did the first couple of songs, talked to the crowd, danced through the audience for a bit. She came up to one of my favorite songs of hers, True Colors. She, while holding a Pride Flag, told the story about how her sister is a lesbian, how the rainbow (pride) flag contains the rainbow colors, how God loves all of His children, and she dedicated the song to her sister and the gay cause. During the song she worked her way around the audience. She even came back to the floor section, jumped up onto a chair and sung most of the song from that spot. Mikey was only about 10 feet away, he ran over and during most of the song, he got to hold her hand while she sang True Colors. When she continued on her way, he came back over and he was crying. That was one of the happiest moments in his life. To this day, when I think of Mikey, I always think of that look upon his face after he got to hold Cyndi's hand while she sang. And I sit here typing this, with tears in my eyes as I visual Mikey's face again, Cyndi has my feet tapping along to her intoxicating voice and beats. Shine on Cyndi...you are a true saint, diva and rockstar!