The 1986 hit Cyndi Lauper hoped could change how you saw yourself
Cyndi Lauper's 1986 single "True Colors" was written as a deliberate message of self-acceptance, arriving at a moment when Madonna was overtaking her as pop's dominant chart force. Lauper had soared to prominence with 1983's "She's So Unusual" and its hits "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and "Time After Time", but by the mid-1980s Madonna's growing cultural clout was eclipsing her. With her second album, Lauper aimed to encourage listeners to embrace their individuality rather than conform, a theme that also resonated strongly within the LGBTQ+ community amid the AIDS crisis and rising homophobia of the era.
The title track, released in August 1986 ahead of the "True Colors" album, was co-written with Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, who had also penned Madonna's "Like a Virgin". Reception was mixed, with some critics finding it overly sentimental, but it proved to be Lauper's last number-one hit on the Hot 100, after which she scored only occasional top-ten singles. The song's message has had a lasting legacy, inspiring the True Colors United campaign, which has worked for nearly two decades to end homelessness among LGBTQ+ youth.
- Lauper wrote "True Colors" in 1986 as an anthem of self-acceptance
- The song became her final US number-one single
- It later inspired the True Colors United LGBTQ+ youth homelessness campaign
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Cyndi Lauper had been one of pop's brightest new stars in the early 1980s, thanks to her debut album "She's So Unusual" and hits like "Girls Just Want to Have Fun". By the mid-1980s, though, another rising star, Madonna, was drawing much of the attention Lauper had once commanded, and Lauper's second album was written partly against that backdrop.
"True Colors", the title track of that 1986 album, was intended as a message encouraging listeners to accept themselves rather than change to fit in. It was written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, the same songwriting pair behind Madonna's "Like a Virgin", and its theme of self-acceptance found particular resonance among LGBTQ+ listeners at a time of heightened homophobia and the AIDS crisis.
The song went on to top the charts, though it marked the last time Lauper would reach number one, and its message later inspired the True Colors United campaign, a long-running effort to address homelessness among LGBTQ+ young people.