Co-host Meredith Vieira played the publicist alongside her, asking her to explain how a dollar from every ticket goes to "something very important," that being the Human Rights Campaign. Not "something very liberal" or "something very pro-Hillary." When Lauper added other gay-activist groups as sponsors, Vieira could only manage an "Oh, terrific!"
Lauper explained the main sponsor was Logo (it came out "Logos"), the cable channel for gays and lesbians that’s part of MTV Networks, which is part of Viacom. In fact, you can see on the Logo site the CBS News partnership with Logo, so CBS shouldn’t be far behind in promoting this tour. Here’s how it unfolded on NBC:
Meredith Vieira: "How is this for starting off with a bang? Cyndi Lauper was the first artist in music history to have five top 10 singles from a debut album. She has sold more than 25 million albums throughout her incredible career and she is now focusing on giving a little something back with her True Colors concert tour. Cyndi, good morning to you."
Vieira, crouching: "I'll lower myself. No it's good for my legs, if I can do this through the whole interview. Tell me about the tour. It starts in June. But it really is about giving back to people that have given you so much in your career."
Lauper: "Well it's a 15-city tour presented by Logo, it's the first annual True Colors tour. It's five hours of music. Me, Deborah Harry, Erasure, the Dresden Dolls, The Gossip. Margaret Cho is the emcee and special -- in certain cities there'll be special guests like Rufus Wainwright and the Indigo Girls and Rosie O'Donnell, your old..."
Vieira: "Absolutely, over at The View. But a dollar from every ticket goes to something very important."
Lauper: "Goes to the, goes to the Human Rights Campaign which is a campaign that does really great work in Washington for basic human rights for the gay and lesbian community. Which, you know, as Americans you 're taught home of the free, you know, except for you guys there, not, not you, but so I figured this would be a great thing. When I was pregnant I read a lot of letters from people because you know at a certain point you can't go anywhere. And so I read letters from the people in the community saying that they were really moved by True Colors and it really helped them through a tough time and I wanted to do something that was positive and celebrate our differences. We'll be out with P-FLAG [Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays], friends and families and parents of gays and lesbians and Matthew Shepard's organization."
Vieira: "Oh terrific! Absolutely."
Lauper: "With a little bracelet that says Erase Hate. So it's all good, it's all positive."
Vieira: "And that, that kicks off in June. But right now you are gonna perform True Colors for us right here."
Lauper: "Yes and for more information go on TrueColors, the TrueColorsTour.com. And tickets go on sale this week or something like that. Did I get it all?"
Vieira, worrying about going over the time limit: "You got it all! And then some!"
After Lauper sang the song, and just before the break, Vieira reminded the viewer again the tour started in June.
