Los Angeles, June 19 (IANS): Singer Cyndi Lauper has revealed that she had to fight her way out to get recognised in the music industry.

The 62-year-old singer has explained that when she was starting out it was unusual for a female singer to write their own material and it was a battle for her to be allowed to sing her own songs, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

"Women who had big voices then did not write. They just sang other people's songs. I fought with the producer all the time. And of course, I was like a harridan," Lauper told Radio Times magazine.

The "Girls just wanna have fun" star said that it was only when legendary jazz musician Miles Davis wanted to cover her song "Time after time" that she felt she had gained the recognition she deserved.

"It was like a soothing balm for my heart, after being told over and over, 'You are not good enough'," she said.

The singer's father left when she was five, and the women in her life fired her ambition to achieve what they never could.

"I watched the women and I noticed their unhappiness because they could never become who they wanted," she said.