True Colors by Cyndi Lauper

True Colors is a ballad written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly and recorded by Cyndi Lauper. She co-produced it with Lennie Petze. Epic released it in August 1986 as the first single and title track of her second album. It spent two weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart dated October 25, 1986. It later became one of the best-known LGBTQ+ anthems.

Steinberg first wrote the lyric about his mother. He then reworked it so it could speak to anyone. Kelly changed the opening verse. Their demo was a gospel-flavored piano ballad, the sort of slow, churchy arrangement made famous by Bridge over Troubled Water. Kenny Rogers, who was working with producer George Martin at the time, passed on an early version. Anne Murray turned it down as well. The writers then brought it to Lauper.

Lauper heard the demo shortly after her close friend Gregory Natal died of AIDS. Natal had asked her for a song, something in the spirit of That's What Friends Are For. She had written Boy Blue for him. She heard True Colors as a song for Natal and for everyone who has been pushed away for being who they are. She later told People that the record was a way for the people around her to feel better after his death.

Lauper threw out the gospel structure and built a sparse arrangement with long stretches of near silence. She sings the verses in a near whisper. The chorus rises without ever turning into a belt. In her memoir, Let the Canary Sing, she wrote that she wanted to reach a person in the most tender spot, and that she had to learn the power of a whisper. On Australian television she described wanting a voice that whispers, almost like a child, so the words would reach listeners at the most basic level. Steinberg called the result breathtaking and stark.

The track was cut in New York at the Power Station and the Hit Factory. Peter Wood played keyboards and helped Lauper with the arrangement. John McCurry played guitar, Neil Jason played bass, and Jimmy Bralower programmed the LinnDrum and added percussion. Angela Clemmons-Patrick sang backing vocals alongside Lauper. The finished single runs three minutes and 46 seconds. Heading for the Moon is on the B-side. The True Colors key and BPM page lists the key, tempo and other details of the recording.

Patricia Birch directed the video. MTV played it heavily. It shows Lauper on a dark soundstage with a drum, a girl on a beach taking a black flower, a jeweled headdress and a skirt made of newspaper. It opens and closes with Lauper striking the drum four times.

True Colors was Lauper's second and last number one in the United States, after Time After Time. It topped the Cash Box chart, went to number one in Canada and Chile, and reached number three in Australia and Portugal, number six in Ireland, number eight in New Zealand and number 12 in the United Kingdom. It finished 1986 at number 41 on the Billboard year-end list. It earned a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. The RIAA later certified it platinum. The BPI certified it gold in the UK.

Gay listeners adopted the song as an anthem. Lauper had recorded it with a gay friend in mind. She accepted that role. Her True Colors Tours in 2007 and 2008 raised support for the Human Rights Campaign. In 2008 she co-founded the True Colors Fund, a nonprofit working to end homelessness among LGBTQ youth. In December 2022 she sang it at the White House signing of the Respect for Marriage Act. In 2025 Billboard ranked it ninth on its list of the 100 greatest LGBTQ+ anthems.

Many other artists have covered it. Phil Collins recorded a version for his 1998 compilation Hits, produced by Babyface with Sheila E. on percussion. It reached number two on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Kasey Chambers released her take in 2003 as the theme for the Rugby World Cup. It reached number four in Australia. Jenna Ushkowitz sang it on Glee in 2009. A Canadian charity group called Artists Against Bullying took it into the national top ten in 2012. Fredro Starr and Jill Scott borrowed from it on Shining Through for the Save the Last Dance soundtrack.

The most widely heard cover came in 2016, when Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick sang it to each other in the animated film Trolls. In 2019, BBC Children in Need brought together 1,399 young singers across nine sites in the UK to perform it at once.

Steinberg and Kelly went on to write I Drove All Night and Unconditional Love for Lauper. True Colors remains the song most closely tied to her.