It’s not a guarantee she’ll get in, but Cyndi Lauper was among the top five vote-getters in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Fan Vote, which closed on Monday.
According to Billboard, Cyndi received nearly 237,000 votes, putting her at #4. She’s behind Billy Idol with 260,000 votes, ’70s British rockers Bad Company with 280,725 votes and the jam band Phish, which was #1 with more than 329,000 votes. The late Joe Cocker was #5, with 233,000 votes.
If it’s not a guarantee of being inducted, why does this even matter? Because the top five vote-getters in the fan poll will collectively be counted as one official ballot, which will be weighted the same as the ballots that come from the official pool of Rock Hall voters. Those voters, who number more than 1,200, are a combination of artists, inductees, historians, journalists and others in the industry.
Notably, there were only two solo female artists nominated this year: Cyndi and Mariah Carey. Mariah ended up at #9 in the fan vote and so did not make the fan ballot. But again, this doesn’t mean she won’t get in.
Since the fan vote was created in 2013, the winner of the vote has gone on to be inducted that same year in 11 out of 12 instances.
As previously reported, this year’s inductees will officially be announced Sunday night on ABC during American Idol, during which Rock & Roll Hall of Famer James Taylor will serve as the special guest mentor.
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