Cyndi Lauper at Glastonbury review: Pop icon brings her delightful eccentricity to Worthy Farm
Audiences were waiting for the big hits but were allowed a refresh of forgotten gems and other takes
A sudden cheer from the crowd at Glastonbury’s Pyramid stage announces the arrival of Cyndi Lauper. The last time Attitude was here was to see Dua Lipa headline on Friday (28 June) and she made a much more noticeable entrance than Cyndi’s more understated approach.
Wasting no time she plunges right into her one-hour setlist. Dressed in an icy cerulean (not blue, not turquoise, nor lapus) outfit with plenty of floaty tulle and with a matching hairdo, Cyndi looks like a cross between Frozen‘s Elsa and a punk-rock version of Miranda Priestley and is delightfully eccentric.
Off the bat, she strikes tracks such as ‘The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough’, ‘Rocking Chair’, and ‘I Drove All Night’ off demonstrating her underrated vocals and proving that classics never go out of style. In a brief pause, she takes time to demonstrate her longstanding LGBTQ+ allyship by wishing “those who are celebrating” a happy Pride.
After this, she launches into the dramatic ’80s ballad ‘Change of Heart’, the video for which she shot partly in London’s Trafalgar Square. ‘Time After Time’ follows and brings the audience to life as they sing in unison. Aside from the well-known songs, we also get surprises like the empowering anthem ‘Savage Daughter’ by Karen Kahan/Wyndreth Berginsdottir.
Then we get the song most people will know – ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’ – which once again gets the crowd singing along with gusto. Before closing with ‘True Colours’ which has, of course, become an anthem of self-acceptance for the LGBTQ+ community, Cyndi opts for a brief snippet of ‘Not My Father’s Son’ from the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, the score of which she wrote.
This section has a strong thread of being authentic to onself, themes familiar to the gay community. It was accompanied by a brief speech on women’s rights. However, whether she was speaking too quietly or there were mic issues it’s unclear, but it was quite hard to hear so the messaging got somewhat lost on the crowd. The issues did also plague the set making some songs hard to hear, even when positioned close to the stage.
Thankfully though, the weather was glorious in contrast to Cyndi’s last appearance when it was a fair bit more miserable. All in all, a decent set that had audiences waiting for the big hits but were allowed them a refresh of forgotten gems and other takes.