In 1977 she damaged her vocal chords, and took a hiatus from singing and trained with voice coach Katie Agestra.

Lauper released her first solo album in 1983 and her career took off like a shot. "She's So Unusual" produced four top five hits, the first time ever for a female artist. On that album and the charts were "Girls Just Want To Have Fun," "Time After Time," "She Bop" and "All Through The Night."

That album sold 4.5 million copies in the U.S. alone and Lauper caught the attention of the critics and the folks handing out awards. She received many nominations and won the 1984 Grammy for Best New Artist. Six more albums followed.

Lauper has also had a stellar film career and has appeared on the hit sitcom "Mad About You." Her best known film role was in the Michael J. Fox movie, "Life With Mikey."

Recently, Lauper performed "Strawberry Fields" on "Come Together," the multi-artist John Lennon tribute CD.

Her hits include: "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," "Time After Time," "She Bop," "All Through the Night," "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough," "I Drove All Night" and "True Colors."

In November 2003 an album of standards was released entitled At Last (formerly Naked City), which became a top 40 hit in the U.S. and Australia. It showed off her skills as a unique interpreter and critics agreed the Lauper's voice - always a force to be reckoned with - was even stronger at age 50 that it had been in her heyday. In March of 2004 the full length Shine album was finally released, though exclusively in Japan. She was nominated for a 2005 Grammy award for "Best Instrumental Composition Accompanying a Vocal" for her interpretation of the song "Unchained Melody" on the At Last album.

In 2004, Lauper was invited to perform at the Nobel Peace Concert, in Oslo. She performed on stage 3 times during the concert. Her most notable performance of the evening was the timeless classic, "Time After Time", which included Chris Botti and Arvid Solang. The trio were accompanied by a full orchestra.

In November of 2005 Lauper released The Body Acoustic, an album which featured acoustic reinterpretations of tracks from her back catalog as well as two new songs. Featuring guest appearances by artists such as Shaggy, Ani DiFranco and Sarah McLachlan, the collection debuted and peaked at #112 on the Billboard chart and upon its UK release in March 2006, accompanied by a promotional tour, it entered at UK #55, becoming her first UK chart album for nine years and her biggest chart success in the UK for 12 years. Lauper continues to tour the world performing live, and is noted as an energetic live performer. She maintains a devoted fanbase and lives in New York with her husband, and their child.

In March of 2006 Lauper took on her first starring Broadway role as "Pirate" Jenny Diver in the musical The Threepenny Opera.