New Cyndi Lauper documentary ‘Let the Canary Sing’ announced
‘True Colours’ vocalist Cyndi Lauper is the subject of a forthcoming documentary. The feature, Let The Canary Sing, will show the singer at her most low-key and her grandest standing in life. The film will be directed by Alison Ellwood, who produced 2020’s The Go-Go’s.
“Like many people, I assumed when Cyndi Lauper burst onto the music scene in the early ’80s, that she was another young star experiencing a meteoric rise to fame and success thanks to MTV,” Alison Ellwood said in a statement. “Her music videos were wild and colourful, her songs like ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun’ [1983] were infectious. But as it turns out, her story is one of hard knocks, hard work and dogged determination.”
The director claims it’s a chance for her to be heard as well as listened, throwing in a ‘True Colours’ pun for good measure. Lauper is also well known for jaunty anthems ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’, ‘I Drove All Night’ and ‘Time After Time’. An active advocate for LGBTQIA+ causes, Cyndi Lauper founded the True Colors United non-profit organisation in 2008. In 2019, she was commended for her activities, winning a UN award in recognition of her fight for the sake of human rights.
Lauper also contributed to the ‘We Are The World’ recording in the 1980s. Lauper was one of a number of rock celebrities to join in on the chorus. Bob Dylan, Steve Perry, Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder are featured on the finished product, and the song is also notable for its demonstration of world harmony, provided that everyone was in agreement with the sentiment.
What the song brought was clarity, although founder Bob Geldof was displeased to see the tables of food that awaited the performers as they finished recording. He pointed out that the song was intended for starving children in Africa, and that the buffet was inappropriately spread out. Band Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ did not provide any food for its artists, pointing to the chipper down the road if they needed re-fuelling. Ultimately, both tracks led to Live Aid, both in Britain and America.