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Salt N' Pepa and Cyndi Lauper's inductions into the 2025 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class will stream live on Disney+ tonight at 8 PM Eastern from Los Angeles.
Lauper first got involved with professional wrestling after she and her then-husband and manager Dave Wolff met Lou Albano on a flight, leading to Albano being cast to play Lauper's father in the music video for Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, which was an insanely massive hit in an era where videos running on MTV meant all of the difference for an artist becoming a success. This led to appearances on Piper's Pit where Albano tried to take credit for Lauper's career, setting up Lauper getting her own star to manage, Wendi Richter, to show she could be a successful manager.
It also led to a major angle in Madison Square Garden where Roddy Piper came and attacking Albano and Lauper when they were being honored in the ring, including kicking Lauper, setting up Hulk Hogan and Mr. T (at the time, as massive movie and TV star) getting involved to set the stage for the first Wrestlemania and after that, WWE began its journey to where it is today. Without Lauper and the MTV connection, WWF loses a massive chunk of what set them up for national and later international success:
On that first Wrestlemania, Lauper managed Richter against Leilani Kai, who was managed by Moolah.
WWF and Lauper later separated and it wasn't until decades later that Lauper, while filming a reality show, returned to a WWE taping in Long Island, NY, where she took part in a segment with Roddy Piper.
Still, Lauper never ever let her appreciation of that era go. During numerous concert tours in recent years, Lauper made specific mentions of Lou Albano, Roddy Piper, The Fabulous Moolah, Freddie Blassie and Andre the Giant before dedicating her song The Goonies R Good Enough to "All the people from wrestling" who made that part of her life so special. As Lauper performed the song, they played clips of the WWE Hall of Famers from the music video of the song:
Wendi Richter was named to the WWE Hall of Fame, but as irony has it, somehow Lauper has never been named to the Celebrity Wing:
Lauper's official induction will take place this November in Los Angeles.
Last year, a great documentary on Lauper, Let the Canary Sing, was released on Paramount+.
Lauper's official bio from The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:
With her distinctive four-octave voice and songwriting chops, Cyndi Lauper broke down barriers for waves of future artists and empowered them to perform as their unique, authentic selves. Lauper became one of the biggest stars of the 1980s with her eclectic mix of pop, rock, reggae, funk, and dance styles. Her record-breaking debut album She’s So Unusual featured four consecutive Top Five U.S. singles – “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” “Time After Time,” “She Bop,” and “All Through the Night” – and earned her two Grammys. Through MTV, Lauper brought her unique look, style, and sound to living rooms throughout America – inspiring legions of young fans, her video for “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” also won the inaugural VMA for Best Female Video.
By the end of 1985, Cyndi Lauper had established herself as one of the best-selling artists in the world, and over the next fifteen years she grew as a writer, producer, and advocate. Lauper’s 1986 sophomore album True Colors reached Number Four on the Billboard 100 and included the chart-topper “True Colors” and Number Three “Change of Heart.” Lauper’s four albums from the 2000s explored and celebrated such musical genres as pop standards, electronic/dance music, blues, and country. A lifelong advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community, she founded True Colors United in 2008 to support LGBTQIA+ youth experiencing homelessness. In 2013 she became the first solo woman to win a Tony Award for Best Score for the queer-positive Broadway hit Kinky Boots.
When Lauper was awarded the Billboard Icon Award in 2018, Dua Lipa called She’s So Unusual “a multiplatinum declaration of independence and an important statement about the right of women to define themselves and their place in the world on their own terms.” In 2024, Lauper embarked on a sold-out worldwide farewell tour and was the subject of the documentary Let the Canary Sing.
Further cementing her legacy, Lauper’s “Time After Time” has been covered by over 100 artists and is featured in Rolling Stone’s 500 Best Songs of All Time. Cyndi Lauper’s rebellious influence on the attitudes, sound, and fashion of the music industry for the past forty years is evident in the work of other iconoclastic artists like P!nk, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, and Chappell Roan.
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The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have also named pioneering rap group Salt N' Pepa to the Hall under the category of "Musical Influence."
Salt N' Pepa played NFL legend Lawrence Taylor to the ring with a version of their hit Whatta Man when Taylor main evented Wrestlemania 11 in Hartford, CT vs. the late Bam Bam Bigelow.
The Hall's official bio for Salt N' Pepa:
When Salt-N-Pepa jumped into the rap scene, a new era of hip-hop was born – a time for women to harness their own power and flip the male-dominated genre on its head. They established a new look and style with their spandex, asymmetrical haircuts, and Dapper Dan jackets. Musically they mixed a two-MC flow with expert DJ technique, all while blending hip-hop beats with pop– and R&B–influenced melodies and confident lyrics celebrating female empowerment. They were the first major all-female rap group and the first women in rap to go platinum, crowning them the First Ladies of Rap.
Cheryl “Salt” James and Sandra “Pepa” Denton were nursing students at Queensborough Community College when they met while working together at Sears. At the urging of their friend – and later producer and songwriter – Hurby “Luv Bug” Azor, they cut the track “The Showstopper” for his music school project, a response to Doug E. Fresh’s single “The Show.” The song was a radio hit, and the group soon rounded out their act by adding a DJ – Dee Dee Roper as Spinderella. The group’s 1986 debut, Hot, Cool & Vicious, gained traction, but it was the B side to “Tramp,” 1987’s “Push It,” that would catapult them onto the charts. Peaking at 19 on the Billboard Hot 100, the song’s real impact came with its nomination for Best Rap Performance at the Grammys in 1989 – the award’s first-ever prize in the rap genre – and a re-released album with the hit track went platinum.
By 1990, Salt-N-Pepa began to flex creative independence with their album Blacks’ Magic, with Salt writing and producing “Expression,” their first track to top the Hot Rap Singles chart. Salt-N-Pepa spoke to a country shaken by the AIDS epidemic with “Let’s Talk About Sex,” a brazen yet honest call for safety and agency. 1993’s “None of Your Business,” off the group’s LP Very Necessary, challenged sexual norms and gender roles even harder, and the track’s Grammy win – a first for women in rap – proved their message landed. Additional hot singles “Whatta Man” (with En Vogue) and the Salt-N-Pepa–penned “Shoop” helped drive the album to five times platinum.
Salt-N-Pepa received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2021 Grammys, the first female rappers to enjoy the honor. The group has inspired five decades of female MCs – MC Lyte said, “There’s no way that I can say that I wasn’t influenced by Salt-N-Pepa.” Their undeniably provocative, fresh style and worldwide commercial success broke ground for women in rap.
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