Deborah Ann "Debbie" Gibson (born August 31, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She became famous at the age of 16. The following year, she was pronounced the youngest artist to write, produce, and perform a 1 single on the Billboard hot 100, with her song "Foolish Beat" and she remains the youngest female to write, record, and perform a 1 single to date.
She appeared on the covers of teen magazines (in the USA), such as Tiger Beat. She has gone on to starring roles on Broadway and touring musicals, as well as independent film and television work. She continues to record, and reached the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart as high as 24 during 2006 in a duet with Jordan Knight titled "Say Goodbye."
Early life
Gibson was born in Brooklyn, New York, the third daughter of four for Diane and Joseph Gibson. She grew up in the Long Island suburb of Merrick. At the age of five, she began performing in community theater with her sisters Karen, Michele and Denise and cousin T.J Normandin and wrote her first song, "Make Sure You Know Your Classroom." At age eight, she sang in the children's chorus at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. She began playing the ukulele and taking piano lessons soon after, including with American pianist Morton Estrin.Gibson said that her household was probably the only one where you would hear kids fighting over piano playing time.
Music career
In 1987, while performing around the United States at nightclub venues, Gibson was recording what would become her debut album, "Out Of The Blue." The album was recorded in four weeks. Four singles from Out Of The Blue reached the Top 5 of the Billboard Top 100: "Only in My Dreams", "Shake Your Love", "Out Of The Blue", and the 1 hit "Foolish Beat", followed by "Staying Together" which performed more modestly, reaching 22. "Foolish Beat" set a record for Gibson, making her the youngest artist ever to write, produce, and perform a Billboard 1 single, as entered in the 1988 Guinness Book of World Records, and she remains the youngest female artist to write, record, and perform a 1 single to date. By the time Out Of The Blue was established as a hit album, and she had success in the UK, as well as in Japan and southeast Asia, with her Out Of The Blue tour. By the end of 1988, Out of the Blue had gone triple platinum.[6] The Out Of The Blue music videos on VHS was certified platinum by the RIAA, as well as Live In Concert "The Out of The Blue tour VHS video was certified 2x platinum by the RIAA.
In October 1988, Gibson sang the national anthem for Game One of the Major League Baseball World Series. Throughout 1988 and early 1989, Gibson was racking up studio time recording her second album release. Electric Youth was released in March 1989, and spent five weeks at on Billboard's Top 200 Album Chart. The first single released, "Lost in Your Eyes", was on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks, garnering Debbie with another achievement Electric Youth album and single "Lost In Your Eyes" simultaneously at. She shared ASCAP Songwriter of the Year Award 1989 with Bruce Springsteen. Subsequent singles from this album missed the Top 10: Electric Youth No More Rhyme and We Could Be Together. The Electric Youth album was certified 2x platinum by the RIAA. Another successful "The Electric Youth" world tour, and Live Around the World tour on vhs certified 2x platinum by the RIAA followed.
In tandem with the album, she created a perfume called Electric Youth that was distributed by Revlon, and other makeup essentials for young girls that were distributed nationwide through Natural Wonder Cosmetics, another of her sponsors at the time.
For all her success of the era, Gibson also attracted a lot of detractors. She was the subject of the parody song "Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child", which peaked at 15 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1989, and was a frequent target of stand-up comedian Bill Hicks, most notably in his 1989 Sane Man performance.
1990–95 Gibson recorded two more albums for Atlantic Records: Anything Is Possible (1990), and Body Mind Soul (1993). "Anything Is Possible", co-written with Motown mainstay Lamont Dozier, peaked at 26 on Billboard's Hot 100 in January 1991. Subsequent singles from Anything Is Possible failed to chart on The Billboard Hot 100, although "One Step Ahead" scored on the Billboard Hot Maxi Singles and Hot Dance chart, peaking at 21 and 18 respectively. Body Mind Soul, which was released in February of 1993, spawned another minor hit in "Losin' Myself", which was accompanied by a somewhat contraversial video clip featuring Gibson as a stripper. And while second single "Shock Your Mama" would fare well in Europe and the UK, "Losin' Myself" remains Gibson's last American Billboard Hot 100 chart appearance to date. Atlantic released a greatest hits package in 1995.
Gibson on the set of the video for "No More Rhyme"During this time, Gibson was part of a supergroup that recorded the charity single Voices that Care which peaked at 11 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart In 1995, she signed with EMI's SBK Records division and recorded what would be her only album for the label, Think With Your Heart. This album is an Adult Contemporary heavy album consisting of piano ballads and keyboard ballads. The album's producer, Niko Bolas (usually Neil Young's co-producer), was producing the reunion album for veteran punk band Circle Jerks, and invited Gibson to a recording session for that band's album. She sang background vocals on the song "I Wanna Destroy You," as well as appearing at and participating in the Circle Jerks' performance at punk venue CBGB, wearing one of the band's t-shirts and sharing a microphone with frontman Keith Morris.
Studio albums
Out of the Blue (1987)
Electric Youth (1989)
Anything Is Possible (1990)
Body Mind Soul (1992)
Think With Your Heart (1995)
Deborah (1997)
M.Y.O.B. (2001)
Colored Lights: The Broadway Album (2003)
Ms. Vocalist (2010)
Photo Gallery
