At the final stop on her farewell tour, Cyndi Lauper brought out a number of special guests including Joni Mitchell, Cher, and SZA.
After captivating audiences for decades with her timeless hits, The Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award-winning songwriter performed at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday for her final show, marking the end of an incredible tour across the US, Europe, UK, and Australia.
The final gig was a star-studded event, with appearances from a number of artists and dear friends.
Joni Mitchell, in only her second public live appearance of 2025, first joined Lauper for a rendition of “Carey”, the Blue classic that Lauper herself had covered a dozen or so times in concert, including at a 2000 tribute concert for Mitchell.
For the next song, Lauper was joined onstage by John Legend, who assisted the singer on her hit “Time After Time”.
Then for encores, SZA came out to sing “True Colours”, before Lauper’s former tour mate Cher came out for “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”.
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Other special guests across the tour have included Sam Smith, Hayley Williams, and Mickey Guyton, who cameoed at the penultimate show at the Hollywood Bowl. During the Australian leg of the tour earlier this year, Lauper was supported by The Veronicas, and in Melbourne, Tones and I joined her on stage for a special duet of “Time After Time”.
Despite the festive farewell, Lauper will next take the stage, presumably, at her Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction later this year.
Few would have been surprised if Lauper had entered the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame during her first year of eligibility back in 2008. After all, she’s one of the most successful artists of the 80s. The video for “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” has racked up 1.5 billion plays on YouTube; the song itself 1.4 billion plays on Spotify. (And that’s not even getting into the juggernaut of Kinky Boots.)
Yet for some reason, it took Lauper 17 years and three ballots to finally earn her rightful place in the Hall of Fame.
