Cyndi Lauper - A Grammy Salute to Cyndi Lauper, Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA, 8-29-2025

In recent years, the people behind the annual Grammy Awards have gotten in the habit of having a "Grammy Salute" concert each year that typically stars one musical act, but also has some guest stars. In 2025, the main star was Cyndi Lauper. So here's her concert.

At the time of this concert, Lauper was 72 years old. She had most of her commercial success in the 1980s. So she's not a spring chicken anymore. In fact, she announced that her 2025 tour would be her last tour. (However, she's not done performing: she plans on having a residency in Las Vegas in 2026 instead.) But despite her age, she still sounds great here. She had a voice that had a remarkable four-octave range, so even if she lost some notes, she has a lot of notes to lose.

The thing that makes this concert stand out from her other concerts are the many guest stars she sings duets with, especially Joni Mitchell, John Legend, SZA, and Cher. (It seems John Legend goes to every single tribute concert there is.) At the same time, she presented a kind of "greatest hits" from her career, while also throwing in some cover versions, like "Iko Iko" and "Carey." 

This show was broadcast as a special on CBS. A few days ago, a massive video file emerged of the show. I converted that to audio and chopped it into mp3s. Along the way, I cut out some unnecessary bits. For instance, an announcer often gave teasers of the musical acts still to come later in the special. I got rid of all that. And there were some spoken tributes to Lauper, including one by Brandi Carlile, that I cut out because they weren't part of the actual concert.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. 

This album is an hour and 21 minutes long. 

01 She Bop (Cyndi Lauper)
02 talk (Cyndi Lauper)
03 The Goonies 'R' Good Enough (Cyndi Lauper)
04 I Drove All Night (Cyndi Lauper)
05 talk (Cyndi Lauper)
06 Who Let in the Rain (Cyndi Lauper & Mickey Guyton)
07 talk (Cyndi Lauper)
08 Time After Time (Cyndi Lauper & John Legend)
09 Iko Iko (Cyndi Lauper with Trombone Shorty & Angelique Kidjo)
10 talk (Cyndi Lauper)
11 Sally's Pigeons (Cyndi Lauper)
12 talk (Cyndi Lauper)
13 I'm Gonna Be Strong (Cyndi Lauper)
14 Change of Heart (Cyndi Lauper)
15 talk (Cyndi Lauper)
16 Carey (Cyndi Lauper & Joni Mitchell)
17 Money Changes Everything (Cyndi Lauper & Jake Wesley Rogers)
18 Shine (Cyndi Lauper)
19 True Colors (Cyndi Lauper & SZA)
20 Girls Just Want to Have Fun (Cyndi Lauper & Cher)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/Xn6edwLm

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/GSo657YakBN1MrO/file

The cover image is from this exact concert. I also used some promotional material for this show for the text at the top, including the colors, though I rearranged it a bit. Then I made some new text to match that style at the bottom.

Various Artists - An All-Star Tribute to Joni Mitchell, Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City, 4-6-2000

For a few years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the TNT TV network hosted a few annual "all-star tributes" to some music legends. I've already posted albums of such tribute shows to Johnny Cash, Brian Wilson, and Paul Simon. Here's another one, celebrating the music of Joni Mitchell.

This concert actually featured Joni Mitchell herself, but she had a relatively minor role. At the very end, she performed one song and gave a short speech. Instead, the bulk of the concert consisted of famous musical acts performing her songs. Just look at the cover or at the song list to see the names. There also were some famous non-musicians who talked a little bit between songs, such as actors Susan Sarandon and Laurence Fishburne, and the main host, Ashley Judd. Plus, I never thought my music blog would have a track by Hillary Clinton, but here we are.

If I recall correctly, there was some more stuff to this concert that I edited out, such as testimonials about Mitchell's life and career, narrated by the likes of Goldie Hawn and Rosie O'Donnell. I kept the focus on the songs, and introductions to the songs.

The Stone Temple Pilots were also due to perform at this concert. However, the band's lead singer, Scott Weiland, blew his voice out by performing three full concerts the day before. They were due to perform the song "Woodstock." At the last minute, Richard Thompson stepped up to perform that song instead. That's why he's the only performer here to do two songs, because he also had been scheduled to perform the song "Black Crow." 

Note that the final song, "The Circle Game," faded out before it ended. Probably that's when the TV broadcast came to an end. I extended it a bit by repeating a chorus from earlier in the song and then fading it out. That's why that song has "[Edit]" in its title.

There's an amazing official Joni Mitchell website, www.jonimitchell.com. It has a webpage just on this concert, with lots of pictures and dozens of newspaper articles about it. Here's a link:

Joni Mitchell - 2000.04.06 | An All-Star Tribute To Joni Mitchell Hammerstein Ballroom | New York 

This album remains officially unreleased as an audio album. However, a DVD of it has been released. But this is about ten minutes longer. The sound quality is excellent. 

This concert is an hour and 18 minutes long. 

01 Raised on Robbery (Wynonna Judd & Bryan Adams)
02 talk (Ashley Judd)
03 Carey (Cyndi Lauper)
04 talk (Ashley Judd)
05 Woodstock (Richard Thompson)
06 talk (Hillary Clinton)
07 Chelsea Morning (Shawn Colvin & Mary Chapin Carpenter)
08 Big Yellow Taxi (Shawn Colvin & Mary Chapin Carpenter with James Taylor)
09 talk (James Taylor)
10 River (James Taylor)
11 talk (Ashley Judd)
12 You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio (Wynonna Judd)
13 talk (Susan Sarandon)
14 Help Me (k.d. Lang)
15 talk (Laurence Fishburne)
16 The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines (Cassandra Wilson)
17 talk (Ashley Judd)
18 The Circle Game (Sweet Honey in the Rock)
19 talk (Ashley Judd)
20 talk (Shawn Colvin & Mary Chapin Carpenter)
21 Amelia (Shawn Colvin & Mary Chapin Carpenter)
22 talk (Ashley Judd)
23 Black Crow (Richard Thompson)
24 talk (Richard Thompson)
25 talk (Ashley Judd)
26 Free Man in Paris (Elton John)
27 talk (Elton John)
28 A Case of You (Diana Krall)
29 talk (Ashley Judd)
30 talk (Tony Bennett)
31 Both Sides Now (Joni Mitchell)
32 talk (Joni Mitchell)
33 The Circle Game [Reprise] [Edit] (Joni Mitchell & Everyone)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/acNAjTY6

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/GVHWLt1ZTKXHMpu/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert. From left to right, that's Joni Mitchell, James Taylor (in back), Cassandra Wilson, Shawn Colvin, and Elton John.

Cyndi Lauper - PBS Soundstage, WTTW Studios, Chicago, IL, 11-6-2003

Here's the turn of Cyndi Lauper to perform for the "PBS Soundstage" TV show. Her episode is from 2003. That's the year the show was revived after being dormant for over a decade.

Lauper is best known for his hits from the 1980s. After that, she struggled to get sales and attention. But she never stopped releasing music, and she has an excellent voice. In 2003, the same month as this concert, she released the studio album "At Last." IT was an unusual departure from her pop rock style, because it consisted entirely of jazzy covers of classic songs.

This concert heavily relied on that new album. Most of the songs come from it, with only four of her 1980s hits near the end. Personally, I think she did a good job with this kind of music.

This album is 55 minutes long. This album is unreleased and the sound quality is excellent.

01 At Last (Cyndi Lauper)
02 Walk On By (Cyndi Lauper)
03 talk (Cyndi Lauper)
04 Stay (Cyndi Lauper)
05 talk (Cyndi Lauper)
06 Until You Come Back to Me [That's What I'm Gonna Do] (Cyndi Lauper)
07 talk (Cyndi Lauper)
08 Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (Cyndi Lauper)
09 talk (Cyndi Lauper)
10 On the Sunny Side of the Street (Cyndi Lauper)
11 True Colors (Cyndi Lauper)
12 talk (Cyndi Lauper)
13 Shine (Cyndi Lauper)
14 Girls Just Want to Have Fun (Cyndi Lauper)
15 talk (Cyndi Lauper)
16 Money Changes Everything (Cyndi Lauper)
17 Time after Time (Cyndi Lauper)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/42wZmwsw

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/G0u3tfjl3cUASqb/file

The cover image is a screenshot from a video taken from this exact concert.