Cyndi Lauper got welcomed into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last night in Cleveland, and it was pretty awesome to watch.
Chappell Roan did the honors, sharing how she used to sing “True Colors” in contests as a kid and how much Lauper’s music means to her now, calling Lauper a hero who broke all the usual rules for pop stars, changing not just the look but the very feeling of the whole thing. “It’s that courage that not only creates incredible art that gives everyone who experiences it the permission to be themselves—it opens their hearts, it changes their mind, and that is its power,” Roan said, just sounding super inspired.
Lauper came out next and started out singing “True Colors” by herself, really quiet at first, then made it huge. Then Raye jumped in for “Time After Time,” and pretty soon it got wild when Avril Lavigne and Salt-n-Pepa appeared for “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” The crowd got to sing too, which probably made a lot of people lose their voices until tomorrow morning.
Fans really love when songs bring everyone together like that.
When all the noise calmed down, Lauper grabbed the mic and said, “I just want to say that I stand on the shoulders of the women who came before me, and my shoulders are broad enough to have the women who came after me stand on mine.” She also said, “The little kid in me still believes that rock ‘n’ roll can save the world. I just want to say now of all time, let’s come together again and do good in the world because it needs us.” Those words felt like a big group hug straight from the stage.
And just to make things even more loaded, the new class this year also had the White Stripes, OutKast, Soundgarden, Bad Company, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, plus Warren Zevon and Salt-N-Pepa getting special awards for being, well, really influential.
