Girls just want to have fun, Cyndi Lauper has been persuading us for decades. And some guys have all the luck, Rod Stewart has been pointing out since 1984.
About 10,000 people had the luck Sunday night at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul of witnessing Lauper generate a lot of fun and Stewart, well, coasting and perhaps wondering why the Twin Cities interrupted his holiday for a concert.
It's because he had strep throat in August so he postponed shows set for St. Paul and Kansas City.
He assured Sunday's audience that he'd had six weeks of rest and promised to give an extra-long concert to compensate for the inconvenience this summer.
Guess what? Stewart played the same 1¾-hour, 18-song set he's done at most cities on this joint tour with Lauper. The one difference was Lauper did not join him for a duet, something that has been a regular feature on the trek.
Let's applaud Lauper for her spirited, sometimes emotional hourlong performance that was a triumph of both music and personality. Wearing a multi-colored sequined pantsuit, plain black shoes and what resembled a Phyllis Diller fright wig, the kooky, cartoonish New Yorker celebrated all causes Cyndi Lauper. That would be her love of pro wrestling, her persistence in her career, her Broadway triumph (as composer of "Kinky Boots") and, most importantly, women's rights, gay rights and the obligation to vote in next month's elections.
Her messages were powerful and provocative, as she showed photos of participants in the 2018 Women's March on Washington carrying signs emblazoned with "girls just want to have fun-damental rights" while she and her band delivered "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" with vitality and purpose.
Lauper, 65, made sure that everyone at the X had fun by cruising through the crowd while singing during three different numbers. She got serious telling a story about an uncle who was laid off from a job in New York's financial world and how it ruined his family. She used that tale to illustrate the urgency for all people to vote, no matter who for.
