We all know exactly how this gig ends. Or we think we do. There can only be one finale to Cyndi Lauper’s farewell tour set, soundtracking the streamer explosions garlanding a sea of upheld phones – Girls Just Want to Have Fun, a female-forward anthem from 1983 that hasn’t left hits radio playlists since.
Originally written by Robert Hazard, the song was refashioned by Lauper into a paean to women’s pleasure and freedom. It staked a claim to living life in brightly hued contrast to the lives her mother, her aunts, their female neighbours in Queens, New York – and many of their Sicilian foremothers – had put up with. The dancers in the video intentionally featured a range of ethnicities, the conga line dragged in a diverse array of party people and passersby. Everyone wanted fun, the track screamed. Everyone deserved choice and autonomy over how they spent their time.
