Three days after former president/felon Donald Trump held a vindictive, pro-race rally at Madison Square Garden, Cyndi Lauper — a music icon and champion of LGBTQ and women’s rights — attempted to clear the air at the iconic New York City venue on Wednesday (October 30) during her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour.

“It’s time we (women) start stepping up and voting for ourselves. We need equality – and I’m not going back, that’s for sure,” she said earlier in the evening, before hinting at Sunday night’s MAGA rally: “We need a lot of love here tonight to dissipate a lot of hate that was. Here. I wasn’t going to say that, but then I did,” she added with an unapologetic shrug. And she’s putting her money where her mouth is, too, donating proceeds from wig sales at her produce table to her Tides Foundation’s Girls Just Want to Have Fundamental Rights Foundation, which raises funds for “safe and legal abortions… women’s health care, prenatal. care, postnatal care, cancer screenings — women’s health.”

The EGT-winning Billboard Hot 100 music icon has never shied away from being outspoken politically, creatively and musically—and the world has been better for it. So while a Cyndi Lauper farewell tour is a bittersweet affair (an audience member vehemently screamed “no!” when told this was her last major road trip), you can’t blame her for wanting to out on the town while he was still in peak musical form. .

At 71, Lauper has lost none of her distinctive vocal power. She roared through “She Bop,” sang “I Drove All Night” at 100 mph and brilliantly weaved her way through her fragile but vocally formidable cover of Prince’s “When You Were Mine.” For those ’80s classics, her band – led by music director William Wittman, who performed on her career-launching classic debut. She is so unusual (1983) – wisely cut close to the original arrangements, bringing a crackling new wave punch to the material rather than trying to recast it through a modern lens. When you listen to these songs, you want those floating synths, snappy percussion and punchy guitars — not to mention the sublime recorder solo on “She Bop” that Lauper herself performed on stage.

Having such a tight and well-oiled band gave Lauper the freedom to stretch vocally and let loose physically – which was very clear towards the end of a “Money Changes Everything” where she belted out various riffs in chorus while writhing on the ground.

Lauper’s set list doesn’t make a difference in terms of hits, but half the fun of the show is her no-nonsense banter, delivered in that indelible, no-BS Brooklyn fashion. “I still can’t parallel park for shit,” she joked after “I Drove All Night”; as he shares a story about a famous actor who told him he was a big fan Goonies, she assured the crowd she would never name her, then paused significantly and said “Andrew Garfield” before singing “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough”; and when she introduced “I’m Gonna Be Strong,” a Gene Pitney cover she used to sing with her previous band, Blue Angel, she joked that she struggled to figure out the song before learning the key changes appropriate: “I tried to sing like him and I sounded like Ethel Merman.” Rolling her eyes, pulling faces and pulling a line out of the corner of her mouth, Lauper is a hilarious man who effortlessly captures the audience’s attention. (It’s a shame about the 1988 adventure comedy vibrationin which she starred alongside Jeff Goldblum and Peter Falk, was a box office flop, because she’s really fantastic in it—you can’t help but wish she’d done more work on the big screen.)

Like many funny people, Lauper can use humor to pack an emotional punch. “Can you imagine if men could get pregnant?” she asked before singing “Sally’s Pigeons,” a harrowing, true-life tale of a backstreet abortion that ends in death. “What did Gloria Steinem say? It would be a sacrament.” Eyes also lit up during “True Colors,” which Lauper performed on a small stage in the middle of the arena as a colorful scarf twirled through the air; Her extended pause after delivering the “don’t be afraid” lines at the end was especially moving.

And of course, “Time After Time” had more than a few people wiping their eyes — not to mention dropping their jaws when surprise guest Sam Smith came out to join Lauper on the Hot 100 No .1, blending their sweet tones with her. restrained, emotional delivery. (Smith watched the rest of the performance completely rapt from the side of the stage.)

The show ended, naturally, with “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” which Lauper performed in a red polka-dot Yayoi Kusama outfit. After singing the line about “boys (who) take a beautiful girl and hide her away from the rest of the world” and lamenting “I wanna be the one to walk in the sun,” Lauper added an appropriately post-Roe lyrical update. : “Everyone wants to have fundamental rights.” Before leading the fans in a final sing-along of the chorus, she urged the crowd to give it their all: “Say it loud enough to get rid of all the bad energy in here,” she shouted with a smile. Based on the vibrancy, power and joy she brought to MSG on Wednesday, it’s safe to say the storied Manhattan arena has gone through the musical equivalent of burning, fumigating and sanctifying the wise under her watch.