Cyndi Lauper Says There Was No Real Feud with Madonna: 'I've Loved Her Ever Since' 'Like a Prayer' (Exclusive)

1983 was a very good year for pop music – and fictional pop feuds.

In July 1983, Madonna came out The first albumwith her hits “Holiday”, “Dress You Up” and “Borderline”. A few months later, in October, Cyndi Lauper was released her debut album, She is so unusual, which included such iconic tracks as “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”, “She-Bop” and “Time After Time”.

Both women had big, quirky personalities, a creative thrifty punk aesthetic, and infectiously fun radio hits. So Lauper, now 71, says it was no surprise to her that the industry tried to pit women against each other and make it seem like they were enemies.

“In the ’80s, they started pitting women against each other,” she tells PEOPLE. “Well, actually, it started in the ’60s, pitting women against each other and wanting to go back to what they were doing before women’s lib or whatever,” she says.

But Madonna beef, she says, is simply made up.

“As soon as I saw her perform ‘Like a Prayer,’ I was like, ‘Oh my God. Ah, I love her!’ And I’ve loved her ever since,” says Lauper.

Cyndi Lauper Gets Real About Aging Philosophy At 71: ‘It’s Bullshit’ But ‘The Trick Is Not To Get Old’ (Exclusive)

Cyndi Lauper at the premiere of her documentary ‘Let the Canary Sing’ in June 2024 in LA

Corine Solberg/Getty Images

In an interview with The Guardian over the summer, Lauper spoke more about the fictional feud.

“It’s like you can only have one woman who is successful. What the hell is this all about?” she said.

“Those women [Madonna, 66] entertains us for years. She wrote great pop songs. I want to be competitive, but not against another woman. I don’t deal with that,” added Lauper at the time.

The Grammy winner is currently gearing up to kick off her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour and opened up to PEOPLE in this week’s issue about the things she’s learned during her 42 years in the music business. He notes that despite looking like a wild child, she wasn’t really wild at all and hardly ever drank.

Cyndi Lauper to perform at Glastonbury Festival in June 2024.

Leon Neal/Getty Images

“I don’t drink, I don’t smoke. It’s very boring,” she says. “But being a singer, I had to watch my voice.”

She says she never had need for drugs or escape from reality. “When you sing, if everything works right, it takes you to another planet anyway.”

Cyndi Lauper’s life in photos

She even talked about how her first big splurge when she became famous was a washer and dryer.

“I still love my washer and dryer closet!” she says with a laugh.

But don’t mistake her for a domestic goddess.

“Did Joan Rivers say that cleaning the house doesn’t make you sexy? No man has ever come home and said, ‘This is a flawless hot bitch. Let’s do it right here!'”

For more on Cyndi Lauper, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on stands everywhere Friday.

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Source: HIS Education