In the late ’70s, Cyndi Lauper blew out her vocal cords and had to quit fronting the cover band she was in.

“Thank God I lost my voice,” Lauper told the Herald. “I might be up to cruise ships by now.”

Back then, Lauper was belting out songs like Janis Joplin. Nobody seemed to pay her much attention.

“It was hard for me,” she said. “They felt that I moved like a boy. People wouldn’t be drinking. They’d just be standing there watching me. I was bad for business. I wasn’t what they wanted.”

With lessons, Lauper found her own voice — physically, then artistically. And it was what people wanted.

In 1983, Lauper released “She’s So Unusual.” The album defined and defied the ’80s. It was both a perfect pop album with irreproachable hits —  “Time After Time,” “She Bop,” “All Through the Night,” “Money Changes Everything,” “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” — and a piece of outside art. Nobody was like her. Nobody is like her.

Now 71, Cyndi is capping her legacy (at least her live legacy) with the Girls Just Want To Have Fun Farewell Tour, which stops at MGM Music Hall on Oct. 26.

“I realized this was bucket list for me,” she said. “I haven’t gone out on an arena tour since I put out the ‘True Colors’ tour in 1986… I didn’t want to do theaters again. I’ve done so many theaters in my life, seen it, done it, bought the t-shirt. I wanted to say goodbye presenting it the way I always wanted.”

So this is a big show. Technology has caught up to Lauper’s ambitions. A-list fashion designers including Christian Siriano have put together costume changes for her. Creative director Brian Burke, who has worked with Lionel Richie, Pitbull, and Celine Dion, has helped Lauper construct the spectacle.

“I wanted to say goodbye in a nice way, a happy way,” she said. “And (the tour production) is not like anything I’ve seen before… I get to do performance art, which is what I’ve always wanted to do and what I have done when I could.”

Lauper didn’t want to wait until her 70s to do this, but she’s been busy. She’s never had a hit like “She’s So Unusual,” but she’s worked constantly. Albums, acting, and a Broadway smash. A decade ago, she wrote the music and lyrics to “Kinky Boots,” which scored a season-high 13 nominations and six Tony wins.

“This is a farewell arena tour, that’s it, I’m not going to tour anymore,” she said. “Will I do something here or there? Maybe, but I’ve been doing these Broadway shows. (Her adaptation of) ‘Working Girl’ is going to La Jolla in the fall of ’25 and on to Broadway in ’26, and it’s a lot of work to do that and this (tour) in between.”

“But I didn’t want to wait until I was so old that I couldn’t do it,” she added. “Yeah, it’s bittersweet. I’m so grateful to be part of the songs that I did, so grateful that there were songs that were bigger than me. The idea of them was bigger than me and they brought people together. I’m so grateful for that.”

For tickets and details, visit cyndilauper.com