Cyndi Lauper never wanted to be pitted against Madonna

By Marianne Garvey, CNN

(CNN) — Cyndi Lauper is still going strong.

The singer and songwriter has a new documentary, she’s playing the Royal Albert Hall in the UK this week, performing at Glastonbury and will kick off a farewell tour later this year.

Lauper reflected on her path to success – and some of the challenges she’s faced along the way – in a recent interview with The Guardian. Her advisors originally wanted to try and position her as the next Barbra Streisand.

“Look, you already had a Streisand,” Lauper recalled telling them.

Next, she said they pitted her against Madonna, as the two women rose to fame around the same time.

“As if you could only have one woman who is successful. What the hell is that about?” Lauper told the publication. “That woman’s been entertaining us for years. She’s made great pop songs. I want to be competitive, but not pitted against another woman. I’m not into that.”

Lauper said her only goal was the art, so she clashed with management.

“It might have been easier for a while, but I wanted to learn. And, honestly, I just always wanted to be a great artist,” she says.

Lauper’s first album, “She’s So Unusual,” contained massive hits like “Time After Time,” “She Bop” “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” which she said she changed lyrically to be more political and “champion female joy.”

Executives called it “disposable.”

“It didn’t matter about the suits,” she said. “So long as you can get by the gatekeepers, you’re OK.”

In 2022, Lauper set up the Girls Just Want to Have Fundamental Rights organization to support women’s rights and access to healthcare.

“We do not have autonomy,” Lauper said. “We pay the same taxes as any man, yet that guy got autonomy and we don’t. How does that sit with you? How’s it feel to have the government in charge of your body? It does not feel good for me. I want to be free and have the same civil liberties as any other person in my country, and then we have equality. If we’re not all equal, then none of us really are, because it can always turn on you.”

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