Lauper tells PEOPLE about the upcoming summer leg of her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour

Cyndi Lauper in June 2024. Credit :Joseph Okpako/WireImage

Cyndi Lauper wants to have a little more fun.

The Grammy-winning singer, 71, recently announced she’s extending her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour with another string of North American dates from July 15 through August 20.

Lauper’s tour kicked off last year, and she’s already performed shows throughout the United States, Canada and Europe — many of which marked her first times headlining arenas since the True Colors World Tour in the mid-’80s.

This time around, Lauper will take the stage in many outdoor amphitheaters, so fans can look forward to celebratory nights under the stars as they jam out to her many hits, from “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” to “Time After Time” and so much more.

Lauper sat down with PEOPLE ahead of the tour to discuss what fans can expect from the upcoming shows, how they’ll be different from the first leg and why she’s not taking a break from working once it’s over.

Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour.Live Nation

PEOPLE: You’re in the middle of the Girls Just Want to Have Fun Farewell Tour, which has you headlining arenas around the world. How has it felt to celebrate your career with fans on such a large scale?

Cyndi Lauper: Well, I’ve always wanted to do this. I haven’t done this since 1986, so I figured, “You know what? If I’m going out, I’m going out big.” Right now I’m very strong, and I can sing strong.

It’s not like my songs are really easy, and you have to keep yourself in shape, and blah, blah blah. I’m going to be 72. I don’t want to be like 80, with the walker going, “Come on, girls!” I want to be proud of what I’m doing, and I am.

I feel really lucky that I was able to partner with Brian Burke, the creative director. It’s real performance art.

It has visuals all through it. Honestly, my whole life I just wanted to do visual art with music. But I think that being able to do this tour and bring people together to celebrate not who I was, but who I am now and who we all are now, bring us together and make it happy. And mix art with it, right? Make the people laugh, and maybe make them cry a little.

Cyndi Lauper in September 2024.Kevin Mazur/Getty

PEOPLE: You just announced the summer U.S. leg of the tour. Will those shows be any different than what you’ve been doing?

Lauper: They might be a little different, because I’m trying to go to the markets that I never went to because you’re competing with not just really other shows, but all the sports things, once you hit the arenas.

So I couldn’t really go to all the places, and there’s all these places all over the States, that I never got to say goodbye. It’s the places I mainly didn’t go — except California.

I’m doing the Hollywood Bowl, mainly because my sister and her wife like to go to the Hollywood Bowl, sit and have a picnic, and it’s a family thing. Plus, you know I’m superstitious. I stepped on a bee there, so.

PEOPLE: Well, hopefully that doesn’t happen this time.

Lauper: No, I know. And you know what? I’m really excited because Jake Wesley Rogers is going to be with us, and [DJ] Tracy Young, and we’re going to do the whole thing that we always do. Inform, be happy, dance, whatever. And be who you want to be.

Cyndi Lauper.Sophy Holland / The Sunday Times / News Licensing

PEOPLE: Has there been one song on this run that’s been a favorite to revisit?

Lauper: You know, first I had a heart attack before because I thought, “Oh my God, how the hell am I going to be doing this? It’s a long show.” But once you’re in it, it don’t feel long. It just goes by.

And then once I did it, and I saw that I could do it, the show started to become this narrative of my actual life.

How I lived and progressed, and then I started talking about what I saw, who I saw and how it affected me. Sometimes you forget that you have different chapters in your life, and I did.

It’s almost like the show has a personality of its own and a narrative. But, for the summer, I want to put in a little bit of Bring Ya to the Brink. You know, the dance stuff.

PEOPLE: Yes. I want that in the show.

Lauper: Don’t worry. It’s a fun show to do. I was worried at first that how big it was would be impersonal, but it didn’t turn out that way.

Also, people come dressed up. We sell these wigs for the Girls Just Want to Have Fundamental Rights Fund, so when everybody’s wearing different color wigs, it’s fun. It’s wild to look at, because then they become part of us, and we become part of them.

Cyndi Lauper.Patrick Beaudry

PEOPLE: Do you have a plan for after the farewell tour ends? Is there going to be a break in store?

Lauper: I’m supposed to be doing [the musical adaptation of the 1988 film] Working Girl after the tour.

That’s what I’ve basically been doing for 10 years. The weird thing about the Broadway thing is it takes a long time. So, it’s not like I’m not going to be working, I’m just not going to be touring. Touring is a whole different animal.

PEOPLE: Has celebrating your career with all these shows inspired any new music? Would you do another album?

Lauper: You know, once I get done with Working Girl, because that’s like album after album, probably I would want to write.

I might want to look for things that I’ve always wanted to do, because you have a limited amount of time to do them. But I’m excited about Working Girl, because I think the music is really great.

I’m writing with Rob Hyman, I wrote “Time After Time” with him, because it is in the ’80s. And we have Theresa Rebeck, she’s writing the book. I even got Cheryl James from Salt-N-Pepa to write a rap for the beginning, because I wanted authenticity. It is very important, when you make music, to have it be authentic.

Tickets for Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour are available now.