Highlights
- Deborah Ann Gibson (born August 31, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer and actress.
- Triple Platinum debut Album ‘Out of The Blue’ Released in 1987
- The youngest female artist to write, produce and perform a Billboard Hot 100 number-one single with ‘Foolish Beat in 1988.
- ASCAP Songwriter of the Year, along with Bruce Springsteen, in 1989.
Deborah Ann “Debbie” Gibson (born August 31, 1970), is an American singer-songwriter who was a teen pop icon.
She was popular in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. Her popularity with her dedicated fanbase remains today.
At age seventeen (and ten months), Gibson was the youngest person to write, produce, and perform a Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit single (in the U.S.) with her song “Foolish Beat”.
She appeared repeatedly on the covers of teen magazines (in the USA) such as Tiger Beat. Although she used the name “Debbie” in her teens, she has always preferred and now uses the name “Deborah” professionally.
Gibson 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”.
Debbie was born in Brooklyn, New York. She grew up in the Long Island suburb of Merrick, New York. At the age of five, she began performing in community theater with her sisters and wrote her first song “Make Sure You Know Your Classroom”.
When she was 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 thereafter. Gibson has stated that her household was probably the only one where you’d hear kids fighting over piano playing time.
Gibson spent years knocking on doors and handing her demos to every director, agent and producer she came into contact with. Eventually, at the age of sixteen, she caught the attention of Atlantic Records which signed the teenager and thus began her successful pop music career.
Gibson performed around the U.S. at various track dates. These dates included venues such as straight, gay and teen nightclubs. Simultaneously, Gibson was recording what would become her debut album, Out Of The Blue. The album was recorded in a total of 4 weeks.
Four singles from her debut LP 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 number-one hit “Foolish Beat,” followed by “Staying Together” which performed more modestly, reaching #22. “Foolish Beat” set a record for Gibson, making her the youngest female artist ever to write, produce, and perform on a Billboard number-one single, a record which stands to this day. By the time Out Of The Blue was established as a hit album, she had considerable success in the UK, as well as Japan and southeast Asia, with stadium tours.
Throughout 1988 and early 1989, Gibson was racking up studio time recording her second release. Electric Youth was released in March of 1989 and spent 5 weeks at #1. The first single released, “Lost in Your Eyes”, held the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks. Gibson achieved an additional honor of having both a #1 single and album charting simultaneously. She also shared ASCAP Songwriter of the Year Award 1989 with Bruce Springsteen.
In parallel with the album, she created Electric Youth eaux de parfum under Revlon, and various makeup essentials for young girls through Natural Wonder Cosmetics, one of her sponsors at the time, distributed nationwide.
Subsequent singles from this album missed the Top 10: Electric Youth (#11), No More Rhyme (#17) and We Could Be Together (#71)
She eventually recorded two more albums for Atlantic Records: Anything Is Possible (1990), and Body Mind Soul (1992). Atlantic compiled Greatest Hits as a 1995 release oddly in conjunction with her release of SBK album Think With Your Heart.
