Cyndi Lauper salutes Black Music Month, reveals Billie Holiday 'changed my life'

By Megan Stone

While Cyndi Lauper is more than happy to help celebrate Pride Month, the "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" singer doesn't want us to forget June is also Black Music Month.

In a thoughtful Instagram post on Tuesday, Lauper revealed a personal anecdote about the portrait that looks over her shoulder when she plays the piano every day.

"This singer back here, Billie Holiday," she shared in her brief but emotional video message. "She changed everything for me when I was just a young singer, before anybody heard of me."

Lauper said the reason she has Holiday's portrait looking over her shoulder is very simple, "I love her."

The "True Colors" singer openly spoke about Black Music Month in the caption, writing, "I've been really really lucky throughout my career to work with amazing black artists and musicians."

"I've recorded a lot of black music. A lot!" the 66-year-old asserted. "I have Billie Holiday looking over my shoulder in this video and in real life, beside my piano. She changed my life."

View this post on Instagram

In addition to it being #Pride month, it's also #BlackMusicMonth. Which is kind of whatever because we celebrate pride every day and we celebrate and listen to black music every day. I've been really really lucky throughout my career to work with amazing black artists and musicians. And I've recorded a lot of black music. A lot! I have Billie Holiday looking over my shoulder in this video and in real life, besides my piano. She changed my life. Anyway, if you go to the link in my bio it'll take you to my #TopTracks playlist on @spotify. All the songs, I think I got them all, that I've covered or performed by black artists, I've put the originals of those songs on my top tracks playlist. I'm sure you've heard most if not all of them but please go check it out and dig deep into the catalog of these artists. When you swipe across on this post you'll see a photo that I ran across while scrolling and it really hit home. If you take all of the music that you love or that has influenced music that you love and artists that you love, all of it has roots in black music. The music created by black artists. So like I said, go, dig deep, and support, celebrate, and amplify the work of black artists. Thank you. ❤️🎵 #grateful

A post shared by Cyndi Lauper (@cyndilauper) on Jun 9, 2020 at 1:16pm PDT

Lauper went on to reveal her personal Top Tunes Spotify playlist, which is now linked to her Instagram bio. The list not only contains her covers of songs made by black artists, but she also hunted down and included all the original versions, too.

The "Time After Time" artist further encouraged her fans to "dig deep into the catalog" to learn more about the black artists she has highlighted.

"If you take all of the music that you love or that has influenced music that you love and artists that you love, all of it has roots in black music," she imparted. "So, like I said, go dig deep and support, celebrate and amplify the work of black artists."