Cyndi Lauper on Glastonbury: I never used to play festivals when I was famous

The Graham Norton Show – London

Cyndi Lauper said at the height of her fame, she “never got a chance to play festivals”.

The American singer, known for a range of 1980s hits including Girls Just Want To Have Fun, True Colours, Time After Time and All Through The Night, will play the main stage at the Worthy Farm festival on Saturday.

Speaking about performing at Glastonbury in 2016, Lauper told BBC Radio 2’s The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show: “I think it was really kind of great and fun and at that point it was raining and I was very happy at the point we had a tent… so everybody was dry and it was fun.

“I never got a chance to play festivals like when I was famous, I guess I’m still famous… but you know what I mean.

“In the beginning, because there were no sound checks so it was like: ‘Oh no there was no sound checks, you can’t do that,’ so I never did it.”

Lauper added that she has a “fabulous outfit” in mind for her slot, but “you never know for the weather”, so she might change it, or her hair colour.

When asked about the amount of people who will see her at Pyramid Stage, she said: “Should I have stage fright?”

Lauper added: “When I did the wall in Berlin in 1990, I started crying because that was really big, I mean really, really big, and I had to tell myself: ‘I was professional and I could do this,’ I did.”

She also said she first met The Beatles star Sir Paul McCartney “at the dentist”, before adding: “I was standing there, and all of a sudden I turned around and there he is.

“I didn’t know what to say, so I say: ‘Oh, your teeth look good.’ You know, what (are) you going to say at the dentist? And he was like: ‘Oh, hug,’ so I was like, ‘OK.’ But he seems like a very nice person.”

Her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour is coming to the UK and Europe in February next year.

She said that she wants it to “say goodbye in style”.

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