Cyndi Lauper showed her true colours in the SSE Arena last night (February 16) with a mesmerising performance which charmed the Belfast audience during the Eighties icon’s first (and last) visit to these shores as part of her Farewell Tour.

With multiple costume and colourful wig changes, the kooky ‘New Yoicker’ delivered a sparkling set interspersed with funny anecdotes about everything from her half Irish-Italian cousin Vinny to men with comb-overs, delivered in her delightful Brooklyn drawl.

“I’m only talking to you because I don’t want you think that all this is bigger than you and me connecting,” she said.

Lauper’s still astonishingly powerful four-octave vocal range belted out a two-hour set which included a gorgeous cover of Roy Orbinson’s I drove All Night, Sisters of Avalon, Sally's Pigeons and many more, all received with rapture by an enamoured Belfast audience.

placeholder image — Cyndi Lauper on stage at the SSE Arena Belfast as part of her Farewell Tour

A truly poignant performance of True Colours staged alongside a version of artist Daniel Wurtzel’s Air Fountain installation, and a beautiful, soft and crystal-clear Time after Time was enough to elicit tears from the hardest of hearts.

Lauper deployed her signature dance move – legs apart, knees in, Elvis hips, wild robotic arms, played the recorder, the guitar and a vest frottoir (a tin washboard). A slick band grooved behind the era-defining star and there were moments of theatrical kitsch, such as when Lauper appeared in a flamboyant red and yellow costume through a trapdoor.

Naturally, she finished with her most famous song, and proved that even at 71-years-old, this girl still wants to fun.