Want to Subscribe?
Sign In or Sign Up now!

Cyndi Lauper burst onto the world stage as the quintessential girl who wants to have fun. After more than 20 sterling years and global record sales in excess of 25 million, she has proven that she has the heart and soul to keep her legion of fans compelled by her every creative move. With her newly minted collection, "Bring Ya To The Brink," Cyndi firmly asserts her position as one of the most beguiling, innovative, and downright exciting recording artists of this — and or other — generation.

"This is an album that can be experienced in two completely different ways," Cyndi says, explaining that Bring Ya To The Brink is a "dance album, one that you can move to and enjoy on a surface level. But if you want more than that, there's a lot to discover inside the lyrics. There are times when these songs get pretty deep."

The genesis of Bring Ya To The Brink, a title culled from the lyrics of the percussive stand-out jam "Lyfe," lies within Cyndi's unique, often sharp-edged observations of the world.

"I am always inspired by what I see every time when I step outside my door," she says. "The world is filled with fascinating people struggling and surviving and living their lives the best way they can. The more I see, the more I write down. For me, the words become my views of life and my poetry."

For Cyndi, the idea to dress the poetry that fills her 12th career album in the vibrant threads of dance music was logical. "I liked the contrast of music that could be celebratory, and even pretty against words that are sometimes a little intense," she says.

With that concept in mind, Cyndi began an adventurous series of production and songwriting collaborations with some of the top guns of the international club scene. For starters, she enticed Britain's Basement Jaxx, famed for such dance classics as "Red Alert" and "Where's Your Head At," to embark on their first-ever non-remix artist collaboration. Their kinetic chemistry in the studio has resulted is the electro-funk future-hit "Rocking Chair."

For all of its sumptuous European flavor, Bring Ya To The Brink gets much of its heart from Cyndi's powerful collaboration with Washington, DC-based club-maestro Rich Morel, lauded for his remixes of hits by Nelly Furtado, Mariah Carey, New Order, and the Killers, among numerous others.

For Cyndi, part of life's truth is exacting fairness, equality, and an overall good for the people she loves. It's to that end that she founded the landmark True Colors concert tour, which begins its second annual journey across America in June 2008. The 24-city trek will strive to once again combine great music with a show of solidarity against discrimination and for equality and raise public awareness about the issues facing the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.

"It is absolutely insane to me that people are not allowed simple civil rights in this country simply because of their sexuality," she says.

In gathering artists that include the B-52s, Indigo Girls, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, and Joan Armatrading, among others, Cyndi is fulfilling a desire to give back to the community for the love and support they have given her throughout her career. The tour is a joint venture with the Human Rights Campaign (the nation's largest organization working for GLBT equality), as well as PFLAG, Centerlink, and the newly created True Colors Fund of the Stonewall Community Foundation.

"It's an honor to always have the genuine affection of the gay community," Cyndi says. "They have never turned their back on me. I will never turn my back on them. We've had a long and enduring love affair."

The roots of that affair can be traced to 1985, during which Cyndi won a Grammy award for Best New Artist and became the first artist in history to have five top-10 singles from a debut album. Along the way, she continually won accolades as a singer, musician, actor, and writer. She has been nominated for 13 Grammy Awards, 2 Emmy Awards, 2 American Music Awards, 7 American Video Awards, 18 MTV awards.

But it's as a master craftsman of her own recordings that give Cyndi her greatest sense of accomplishment. With Bring Ya To The Brink, she has raised the creative bar, hitting what is destined to mark another career watermark of success.

"I still have so much to say and share," she says. "I'm grateful for each and everyday that I get to make music. As long as there's a corner of the world where people want to hear me, I'll be there... singing my heart out.