yndi Lauper has a bucket list item to check off, and she's coming to Nashville to do it. The Grammy-winning pop icon is planning on recording a country album, for release in 2016.

''I want to work with Tony Brown down in Nashville and do a country record, finally," she tells Bang Showbiz.  "I want to record all those songs I used to sing my guts out in my apartment to! It'll be out next year.''

It's not clear if Lauper's country project will be all cover songs, as she hints, or also contain originals. But in choosing to work with Tony Brown, she's certainly inking a commitment to genre authenticity. Brown is the famed producer behind every album the King of Country, George Strait has released since 1992. His traditional country résumé also includes projects by Reba McEntire, Vince Gill, Wynonna, Patty Loveless and Brooks & Dunn, among many others.

Lauper made the big announcement at Tuesday night's U.K. premiere ofKinky Boots, the Tony-winning musical for which she penned all of the music. Her Broadway/West End ventures and upcoming country album are just a few of the many projects the 62-year-old singer-songwriter-philanthropist-activist has on her plate. She's also planning musical collaborations with Seymour Stein, the Sire Records co-founder and award-winning producer who helped launch the careers of Madonna, the Ramones and the Pretenders, among many other pop and rock legends.

Lauper was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame earlier this summer.