Two Queens Natives Nominated For Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame 2023

QUEENS — Girls just want to have fun… and honorary titles.

Pop legend Cyndi Lauper and hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest, both from Queens, were among the nominees announced on Wednesday for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2023 inductees.

“Seeing my name on this year's ballot with so many talents that I admire means so much to me,” Lauper said in an emailed statement to Patch. “It has been a lifetime privilege to reach so many different kinds of fans with a message of following your own path (and having fun along the way, too).”

Lauper, from Ozone Park, is best known for her 1980s hits “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and “True Colors.” She told Rolling Stone Magazine about the difficulties of growing up in Ozone Park and feeling she “didn’t belong there.”

Lauper has sold more than 50 million records worldwide, and has received 16 Grammy nominations and won two of them.

A Tribe Called Quest, composed of the group’s main producer Q-Tip, rapper Phife Dawg, co-producer Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and rapper Jarobi White, first started their musical journey in St. Albans.

Residents can find a mural dedicated to the hip-hop group on the corner of 192nd St and Linden Boulevard, which was painted in 2016. The mural is painted on the corner where they recorded their iconic music video for “Check The Rhime” in 1991.

A Tribe Called Quest has been nominated for four Grammy awards.

Nominee ballots will be sent to an international voting body of more than 1,000 artists, historians, and members of the music industry, while fans around the world can also participate in the selection process.

Fans have until April 28 to vote online every day at vote.rockhall.com or in person at the Museum in Cleveland.