Carroll Bryant: Debbie Gibson: Teen Idol

Back in the day, I thought she was the cutest thing since fluffy puppies. She was adorable, no doubt about that ... and she's still a sweetie to me. I was a huge fan right out of the gate. However, my best Debbie Gibson story was when I was in Cincinnati, Ohio one time taking advantage of some free Reds tickets I got for the weekend and in the elevator of my hotel to go my room and it stopped at a floor a few levels below mine and in walked Debbie. I recognized her right off the bat. (A baseball reference) She simply smiled and said, "Hello." Just as cheerful as could be.

I smiled back and returned the greeting and followed it with the obvious. "Great fan of your music." And in true Debbie Gibson style she said, "Thank you." Then the door opened to my floor. Now, "only in my dreams" did she and I get off the elevator together and went to my room and discovered our "electric youth" but in reality, I walked to my room alone .... but with one amazing and awesome memory to carry around for the rest of my life. And trust me when I say, she's even more pretty in person. And just as sweet as she can be. This post is just my way to "shake your love" (my favorite DG song) Debbie, and honor you and our five minute moment inside that elevator. One of the best of my life.

Deborah Ann "Debbie" Gibson (born August 31, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress.

Debbie Gibson was born in Brooklyn, New York, the third daughter of four of Joseph Gibson and Diane Gibson. Her father was orphaned as a boy and enjoyed singing. Originally named Joseph Schultz, his biological mother married a man with the surname Gibson before putting Joe into an orphanage. Debbie grew up in the Long Island suburb of Merrick and was raised Catholic. She is of Italian/Sicilian, German and possibly Russian descent. At age 5, 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. She said that her household was probably the only one where bystanders would hear children fighting over piano playing time.

After years of writing and producing her own material, Gibson finally found her demo in the hands of a radio personality who eventually shared it with an executive at Atlantic Records. Based solely on Gibson's original song, "Only in My Dreams", she was signed to a development deal and began a promotional tour of club venues throughout the United States.

Gibson spent much of 1986 and the beginning of 1987 building her songwriting catalog while continuing to play club dates. Continuing her promotional tour, Gibson also continued attending classes at Calhoun High School in Merrick, New York, where she would later graduate as an honor student. Diane Gibson, Debbie's mother and manager, accompanied her daughter on many of these track dates. "We played dance clubs, straight clubs and gay clubs", Diane has said.

The promotional pressing of "Only in My Dreams" landed the song within the Billboard Hot 100. Atlantic Records signed Gibson to a recording contract and thus began the process of completing what would be the first record.

Gibson, along with producer Fred Zarr, wrote, recorded and produced her first album Out of the Blue in only 4 weeks. Now having something to market, "Only in My Dreams" was selected as Debbie's 1st single. This time, "Dreams" found traction on Top 40 radio and reached a peak of No. 4 on the Hot 100 chart.

Following the success of "Dreams", "Shake Your Love" was released as the follow-up single and reached the Billboard Top 5. The "Shake Your Love" video was choreographed by Paula Abdul and was the 1st time MTV had visited Debbie on a video shoot.

In 1987, while performing around the United States at nightclub venues, Gibson was recording what would become her debut album, Out Of The Blue. It was recorded in four weeks. Four singles from the album reached the Top 5 of the Hot 100 chart: "Only in My Dreams", "Shake Your Love", "Out Of The Blue", and the number-one hit "Foolish Beat", followed by "Staying Together", which performed more modestly, reaching No. 22. "Foolish Beat" set a record for Gibson, making her (at 17) the youngest artist ever to write, produce, and perform a Billboard number-one single, as entered in the 1988 Guinness Book of World Records, and she remains the youngest female artist to do so. "Out Of The Blue" was established as a hit album and she had success in the UK and southeast Asia, filling stadiums with her "Out Of The Blue" tour. By the end of 1988, "Out of the Blue" had gone triple platinum.

The Out Of The Blue music video compilation was certified platinum by the RIAA; the concert tour video was certified 2x platinum. In October 1988, Gibson sang the national anthem for Game One of the Major League Baseball World Series.

Electric Youth was released in early 1989, and spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Top 200 Album chart. The first single released, "Lost in Your Eyes", was No. 1 on the Hot 100 for three weeks, garnering her another achievement as the first female to have both an album and single simultaneously at No. 1. (She shared the 1989 ASCAP Songwriter of the Year Award with Bruce Springsteen.) Subsequent singles from the album were "Electric Youth" (No. 11), "No More Rhyme" (No. 17), and "We Could Be Together" (No. 71). The Electric Youth album was certified 2x platinum by the RIAA. The successful "Electric Youth" world tour and Live Around the World VHS (2x platinum) followed. In 1988, Debbie sang "Don't Flirt with Me".

In tandem with the second 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, among the first of artists to do so. Debbie's trademark was her hats, usually black bowlers. She also made tight, rolled-up jeans and wearing vests over your T-shirt, friendship bracelets, and two Swatch watches popular as she is clearly seen wearing on the back cover of her popular Electric Youth album and in her "Staying Together" music video. Her influences were Madonna and Olivia Newton-John, though she has often stated she admires Elton John and Billy Joel as favorite artists and was asked and did sing and perform live with Billy Joel and John at Elton John's Madison Square Garden show. She appeared on the covers of numerous teen magazines such as Tiger Beat.

She 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 No. 26 on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1991. Subsequent singles from Anything Is Possible failed to chart on the Hot 100, although "One Step Ahead" scored on the Hot Maxi Singles and Hot Dance charts, peaking at No. 21 and No. 18 respectively. Body Mind Soul spawned another minor hit in "Losin' Myself", which was accompanied by a somewhat controversial video clip, which Matthew Rolston directed, that featured Gibson as a stripper. The second single from the album, "Shock Your Mama", would become a minor hit in Europe and the UK; however, "Losin' Myself" remains Debbie Gibson's last appearance on the Billboard Hot 100.

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. It was an Adult contemporary-heavy album consisting of piano and keyboard ballads recorded predominantly with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The album's producer, Niko Bolas, who was 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.

After parting company with EMI, Gibson formed her own record label, Espiritu, to release her original material. Her sixth album, Deborah (1996), marked her full return to dance-pop. Deborah includes the lead single "Only Words". "Only Words" (Dance Edit) became a Top 40 Hot Dance Music/Club Play hit. The album's other single was the ballad, "Naturally". Though it only sold 20,000 in the US, Deborah remains well-respected.

In 2001, she released her seventh album on her new record label, Golden Egg, titled M.Y.O.B.---i.e. Mind Your Own Business. It featured three singles: the sensual pop song "What You Want", the Latin-infused Dance-pop song "Your Secret", and the bass heavy "M.Y.O.B." Highlights from the album include the sultry Latin-flavored smooth jazz song "In Blue", a vintage style ballad "Wishing You Were Here", "Jaded", and a remix of "M.Y.O.B." with the background vocals of her two nieces.

In 2005, Gibson co-wrote and recorded a song titled "Someone You Love" with the O'Neill Brothers. With the O'Neill Brothers, she released an updated, acoustic version of her number-one hit "Lost in Your Eyes". There was an Emmy-nominated PBS special in 2005.

She had a resurgence of popularity in niche markets. Her single "Your Secret" came back from its dormant state and became popular on some radio stations including Super 91.7 WMPH in Wilmington, Delaware. "Your Secret" has been on their request show, Total Control Radio, for 12 months; it reached No. 1 on its third week on that station's chart in May 2006. It charted along with a few of her other singles, "M.Y.O.B." and "Only Words" (Dance Edit), the Eurodance mix. They all have become recurrent hits on WMPH.

The March 2005 issue of Playboy featured a nude pictorial of Gibson, coinciding with the release of her single, "Naked". She has said that the magazine had asked her five times to pose for them since she turned 18. She agreed to pose in an effort to revamp her image, describing how one casting call called her agent, not realizing that Gibson had long since outgrown her teenage image. The single peaked at No. 35 on the Billboard Hot Single Sales chart in March 2005.

In November 2005, it was announced that Debbie would go on tour with The O'Neill Brothers for "Someone you love Tour" in 2006. "Lost in your eyes" was revamped with an acoustic sound and a song "Someone You Love" was written and performed by Debbie and The O'Neill Brothers and also these two songs appeared on The O'Neill Brothers album Someone You Love.

The 2006 single, "Say Goodbye", featuring dance-pop artist Jordan Knight, has made a good impression on the Soft AC and Hot AC radio formats, becoming the third-most added single on the format during summer 2006. It debuted at No. 35 on the Hot Contemporary chart, peaking at No. 24 in early September through late November. The same year, Gibson appeared in the independent film Coffee Date with Wilson Cruz and Jonathan Silverman and provided a soundtrack song called "Sounds like love".

On November 14, 2006, Gibson released the song "Famous" on her official website. The song was written by Gibson and Tiziano Lugli, and the recording was produced by Lugli.
On May 2007 the world premiere of Electric Youth: The Musical was unveiled at The Starlight Theatre in Orlando, Florida. The musical featured 14 of Gibsons's songs and was directed by Dean Parker. On August 24, 2007, Gibson and Frankie Avalon hosted Time Life Presents Dick Clark's American Bandstand 50th Anniversary Collection.

In September 2007, Gibson considered creating a camp on the West Coast. She is the founder and creator of Camp Electric Youth, a children's summer day camp which ran from July 7–18, 2008. It claims to be the first camp of its kind in the Los Angeles area. The camp was reportedly attended by "over 120 talented singers, actors and dancers" from around the world.

Gibson was a judge for the online talent competition, Total Pop Star, along with Andrew Van Slee (producer and judge), and Joey Lawrence (from Blossom). The first season ran from Nov 12, 2007 – May 30, 2008, though it was later extended to June. The show ended abruptly during the 2nd season.
In January 2008, Gibson announced that she would revive and perform her 1980s hits - along with her Broadway role songs - during a three-run week in May 2008 at Harrah's in Atlantic City.

On March 5, 2009, Gibson announced via YouTube video blog that she would be releasing a new song/video called "Already Gone". Released on her official website and reverberation, the song was released first on March 9, 2009, then the video on March 13, 2009. The song was written by Gibson and produced by Fred Coury. It was accompanied by a music video produced by Guy Birtwhistle and directed by John Knowles, which starred Birtwhistle, Gibson, and Steve Valentine.

Gibson gave a sneak peek of a new song on June 5, 2009 through her YouTube video blog uploaded herself.

Deborah Gibson debuted on Broadway in 1992, playing Eponine in Les Misérables. She then went to London and starred as Sandy in Grease - a role 800 other girls tried out for before producers chose Gibson - in a West End production. The show broke box office sales records. The single version of "You're the One That I Want", a duet with Craig McLachlan, taken from the Original Cast Recording, reached No. 13 on the UK charts in 1993.

On returning to the States, she appeared in the Broadway touring production, this time playing Rizzo. She played Fanny Brice in a revamped Funny Girl tour. She has had many successful theater credits; she was among the many actresses who took the starring role of Belle in the Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast. She replaced Kerry Butler in September 1997 and was in the show until June 1998 when she was then succeeded by Kim Huber. She also starred the critically lauded production of Gypsy (in a production staged at The Paper Mill Playhouse). She starred as Louise opposite Broadway legend Betty Buckley. She participated in the national tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, where she played as The Narrator, and starred as Cinderella in the national tour of Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical with Eartha Kitt as the Fairy Godmother. In October 2002, she starred as Velma Kelly in the Boston production of Chicago. In 2003, she played Sally Bowles in the Broadway revival of Cabaret. From March to April 2004, she played the role of 'Marta' in the UCLA Reprise! production of Company.

Gibson starred as Anna Leonowens in Cabrillo Music Theatre's production of the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical The King and I which began October 17, 2008 in the Kavli Theatre at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza and ran through October 26.

Over the years, Gibson has been the target of stalkers. Robert Bardo, who was convicted for murdering actress Rebecca Schaeffer in 1989, had a wall in his house adorned with pictures of Gibson and Tiffany. In May 1998, Michael Falkner, a disgruntled fan from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, was arrested outside Manhattan's Palace Theater, where Gibson was performing in the live musical adaptation of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. This was after Gibson received threatening letters, emails and faxes from Falkner, who used the alias 'Starcade'. In 2008, Gibson filed for a restraining order against Spanish taxi driver Jorge Puigdollers, who had stalked her since 2002. However, a temporary restraining order was not issued by the court, and a court date was set to determine if a restraining order was appropriate in the matter. The proceeding was dismissed when Gibson failed to show up at the courthouse for the hearing to present her case.
Gibson was once engaged to Jonathan Kanterman and has been in a long-term relationship since 2008 with Rutledge Taylor.

Gibson has been battling Lyme disease since early 2013.