Cyndi Lauper, an Ozone Park native, performed the entire “She’s So Unusual” album for a show that will air on WLIW Saturday, June 28 at 11:10 p.m. Photo courtesy Kat Villacorta
Growing up not far from the Singer Sewing Machine factory and Borden’s milk plant in Ozone Park, Cyndi Lauper spent her childhood as a Queens kid – gardening with her grandmother, watching the recently rerouted planes fly over the home – a large railroad apartment – where she shared a bedroom with her older sister, seeing, time and again, factory workers escape from their jobs and head to Mike’s Deli for a bit of respite.
Decades later, Ozone Park’s child has, we all know, skyrocketed to fame – and Queens residents, along with anyone else, will soon get a chance to see the world-famous artist on the Public Television music series, “Front and Center.” The third season of the series that showcases a variety of artists, from the Avett Brothers to the Goo Goo Dolls and James Blunt will feature the pink-haired Lauper, who turns 61 on June 22, in an episode that premieres on WLIW Saturday, June 28 at 11:10 p.m.
The show includes a performance of the 30th anniversary of the smash debut album, “She’s So Unusual,” from start to finish. After the album was released in 1983 to critical acclaim and commercial success, it went on to land Lauper six Grammy awards, including Best New Artist, and, of course, featured such hits as “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and “Time After Time.”
“It’s a celebration of a record that stands up today as much as it did 30 years ago – it was honor to have her on the show,” said Don Maggi, the show’s executive producer.
The now world-famous Cyndi Lauper grew up in a railroad apartment in Ozone Park, not far from the Singer Sewing Machine factory. Photo courtesy Kat Villacorta
For the 55-minute program, Lauper was taped singing the album at the Highline Ballroom in a smaller crowd – which the series does for all of its artists.
“It’s as intimate as you can get,” Maggi said. “The [singers and bands] love it because it brings them back to their roots, to who they were when they were starting out.”
For her 30th anniversary tour of “She’s So Unusual,” which has taken her across the country, Lauper, who now lives in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, has jumped back to her roots – including launching the tour at Queens College last October.
“The last time that I was here, my mom was in the audience, as she is tonight, and it was to get my honorary high school diploma,” Lauper told the cheering crowd at Queens College. She got me a corsage. So silly
“But high school is important,” the rock star continued, as fans roared in approval.
In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Lauper reminisced about her childhood, noting that it was in her Ozone Park home that she first learned to play the guitar.
“My childhood in that house was an interesting journey,” the Wall Street Journal quoted. “Seeing all those people in our neighborhood who suffered and could have been much more than what fate had handed them made me decide that fate would never hand me anything. I’d never accept, ‘Oh this happened to me and now I can’t do it.’ I’d make my own life.”
By Anna Gustafson
