Released: April 21, 2004

Songwriter: Jan Pulsford Cyndi Lauper

Producer: William Wittman Cyndi Lauper

(Cyndi Lauper, Jan Pulsford)
When I was young
Way back in Sicily
You should have seen me
My hair then was long
There was this one young man
Who always came around
And gave me this ribbon of velvet brown
Waiting for Valentino
His dark eyes lock on mine
Waiting for Valentino
Then you did what you were told
Married a cousin I didn't know
He'd fallen in love with my photograph
Oh why, worked harder then I could bare
And he never seemed to care
I bore his only son at the end of that year
There is a place I can slip away to
Out in the desert of sand and dune
My she's tan; she looks like a mirage
Someday I'll escape there like Scherazade
Waiting for Valentino
His dark eyes lock on mine
Waiting for Valentino
To carry me off through time
I had lived long as I can
Made three generations American
Now my daughter takes my hand
And whispers to me
There is a place I can slip away to
Out in the desert of sand and dune
My she's tan; she looks like a mirage
Someday I'll escape there like Scherazade
Waiting for Valentino
His dark eyes lock on mine
Waiting for Valentino
To carry me off through time
To carry me off through time
To carry me off through time
To carry me off through time

Cyndi Lauper

An 80’s pop starlet that skyrocketed her way to the top of the mainstream game, Cyndi Lauper has made her mark as an artist both socially and musically.

Beginning her solo career in the 1983 with hit debut album She’s So Unusual, Lauper came to be a household name with the four top-five hits that came with the record, including breakthrough single “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and the visceral, chart-topping “Time After Time”. Her camp attitude, electrifying vocals, and unrelenting earworms made an impression on the general public, and she would take home Best New Artist and Best Album Package at the Grammy’s for She’s So Unusual, amidst 4 other nominations. Lauper would never reach the same sort of stardom again musically following She’s So Unusual, but her legacy was far from over.

She’s So Unusual set the ground for her next True Colors. Released in 1986, the album most notably contained title-track “True Colors”, which would grow to become a primary anthem of the gay rights movement. Lauper would later serve as a key advocate of the LGBT community, and she has fairly consistently addressed homophobia throughout her career.