Cyndi Lauper On Sisterhood
By Johana LAug. 23 2018, Published 7:32 p.m. ET
Earlier this month, Cyndi Lauper and Rod Stewart held a concert at the PPL Center. Right before singing her iconic hit, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” Cyndi gave the audience an anecdote about her relationship with her older sister.
Before we get into it, let’s reminisce on our sibling woes. We talked about the pressures of being the oldest sibling, and navigating the already treaded world as the youngest sibling. Oh! And I forgot….the middle child or whatever.
Just kidding, middles! We love you!
Cyndi Lauper, a middle child, reminisced on how sisterhood had an impact on her life:
-“I learned about sisterhood when I was small. I lived next door to my aunt and uncle but it was my mother’s sister and Nana, of course, lived upstairs, and we lived in a double house. […] My aunt, Grace, and my mother were so close. And then, of course, I had a sister and I was the little sister but my mother made a mistake and said that I was born to be her friend. […] when I was small, and my sister would go out and play with somebody else, I would have a fit. I would have like a big tantrum. You know. Very dramatic. Me. You know. And I would say to her ‘You can’t play with her! That’s why I was born! To be your friend! You can’t play with her! You have to play with me!’ You know, so that was sisterhood for me. Until I got older and read a book called ‘Sisterhood Is A Powerful Thing’ And then, of course, in my life, I wound up singing the sisterhood song of ever.”
“I learned about sisterhood when I was small. I lived next door to my aunt and uncle but it was my mother’s sister and Nana, of course, lived upstairs, and we lived in a double house. […] My aunt, Grace, and my mother were so close. And then, of course, I had a sister and I was the little sister but my mother made a mistake and said that I was born to be her friend. […] when I was small, and my sister would go out and play with somebody else, I would have a fit. I would have like a big tantrum. You know. Very dramatic. Me. You know. And I would say to her ‘You can’t play with her! That’s why I was born! To be your friend! You can’t play with her! You have to play with me!’ You know, so that was sisterhood for me. Until I got older and read a book called ‘Sisterhood Is A Powerful Thing’ And then, of course, in my life, I wound up singing the sisterhood song of ever.”
As an older sibling, I remembered the days when my parents forced me to take my sister out to hang out with my friends and me. Cyndi’s words brought tears to my eyes because (I’m a Cancer) I remember being so annoyed by it in the past but now it’s endearing. A true testament to how much we’ve grown and how lucky we are to have each other. Hearing it from Cyndi Lauper made me realize how much deeper those feelings are for the younger sibling. She’s right. We gotta admit, a lot of our younger siblings are born so that the older sibling doesn’t have to grow up alone. While we drive each other crazy, we love them and learn to appreciate them as our best friends and the ones who best know what our lives were growing up.
Cyndi continues:
-“Two years ago, I got all these pictures from my friends who went to the great Women’s March. And there were all these pictures of these women carrying signs, young women, saying ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fundamental Rights.’ So I still think sisterhood’s a powerful thing.”
“Two years ago, I got all these pictures from my friends who went to the great Women’s March. And there were all these pictures of these women carrying signs, young women, saying ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fundamental Rights.’ So I still think sisterhood’s a powerful thing.”
Watch her speech and performance below.
