Cyndi Lauper Recalls Being Told to 'Write a Song About Female Masturbation' and Ensuring the Lyrics Weren't 'Obvious'

Mar. 15, 2025

Cyndi Lauper.Photo:Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty

Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty

Cyndi Lauperhas always been up for taking a risk.

In a new interview withThe Independent, the 71-year-old Grammy winner shared the story behind her 1984 hit “She Bop” and how she crafted the song’s cheeky lyrics while keeping it radio-friendly.

“It really shocked me,” she recalled of the track, which wound up on the Parents Music Resource Center’s “Filthy 15” list of “profane or sexually explicit” songs upon its release.

“I wrote it with this guy, Steve [Lunt], who called me up one day and he said, ‘You’ve gotta write a song about female masturbation,'” said Lauper, “and I was like, ‘Whoa, OK!'”

“And we did, but I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t obvious — that the grown-ups would know what it was about and have a chuckle, but then the kids would just think it’s about dancing,” she added of the track, also crafted alongside Rick Chertoff and Gary Corbett.

“Hey, hey they say I better get a chaperone / Because I can’t stop messin' with the danger zone / Hey, hey I won’t worry, and I won’t fret / Ain’t no law against it yet,” she sings on the upbeat track.

Cyndi Lauper in New York City in December 1986.Ebet Roberts/Redferns

Ebet Roberts/Redferns

Lauper’s efforts were successful, as “She Bop” — the third single off herShe’s So Unusualalbum — reached No. 3 on theBillboardHot 100, becoming her third consecutive top-5 hit on the chart after “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and “Time After Time.”

Backlash, however, came along with the fanfare. “I didn’t think it was so bad, or so nasty. But all of a sudden it got loony,” she said.

Nonetheless, Lauper’s record label was supportive of the track, and she was happy to shed light on a topic not often discussed openly at the time.

“Nobody was ever really talking about stuff like that,” she said. “I find it interesting to talk about things that people don’t want to talk about.”

Cyndi Lauper at Glastonbury in June 2024.Joseph Okpako/WireImage

Joseph Okpako/WireImage

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Lauper is currently celebrating her legacyon the Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour, which wrapped its U.S. leg in December and hits Europe in February. She’ll then head to Australia for a string of dates in April, before concluding the run that month in Japan.

source: people.com