Debbie Gibson: From 80s Icon To Empowered Storyteller, Ready For Australia Again

Debbie Gibson returns to Australia for the first time since 1989 to perform live on stage. At just seventeen, she became the youngest artist in history to write, produce and perform a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with Foolish Beat. She remains the youngest female artist to accomplish that milestone. Her album Electric Youth achieved platinum status in Australia and produced the ARIA Top 10 hit Lost In Your Eyes. Across her career, Gibson has sold more than sixteen million albums worldwide and established herself as one of pop’s defining voices of the late 80s.

Often referred to as the “Original Pop Princess,” Gibson has earned multiple chart-topping singles and a string of acclaimed releases. Alongside her pop success, she has built an extensive stage career, starring in seventeen musicals over seventeen years, including Les Misérables, Grease, Beauty and the Beast, Gypsy, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Chicago, and Cabaret. She has also appeared in various film and television roles. Her most recent pop album, The Body Remembers, debuted at No. 2 on the US Apple Sales chart in 2021. In 2025, she released her memoir, Eternally Electric, which became a US bestseller. A live show not to be missed, bursting with nostalgia, pop magic and music anthems that defined a generation. Debbie talks to Hi Fi Way about touring with Go West.

Great to be talking to you. You must be super excited for your first Australian tour since 1989?
Yes! Oh my gosh, I am so, so excited. Sorry, like I said, I was just walking in to set up, so give me one second. I am so, so excited. I can’t believe it’s been this long, but, you know, I’m really focused on the fact that it’s happening.

Does it just feel like all the planets and all the stars have just lined up at just the right time?
Yeah, I mean, like, it takes a long time to rebuild. Like, it’s not that my whole career was in a rebuild, but the recording part and the touring part, especially international touring, I just hadn’t focused on it in a very long time, and that’s because I was independent, and then I did a lot of theatre, and then I dealt with health challenges, and it’s amazing, as anybody out there will attest to, years go by, and then decades go by, and you go, oh my god, where did the years go? I’m somebody who likes to do things the right way, not just to do them, I’ve had crappy offers along the way, and I just mean the wrong fit, maybe with the wrong acts, or the wrong types of venues, or whatever, and this just felt right across the board, and I get to visit cities I’ve never been to, and I believe I’m celebrating my birthday in Adelaide. I’ve got to double check. I think so. Don’t quote me, but it’s August 31 we have to check that, but yeah, this just felt like the pairing with Go West, and the types of venues, and just the way it came together, it felt like the perfect thing at the perfect time.

The pairing with Go West, how did that come about? Do you know those guys really well over a long period of time?
I don’t. It came about because I met their manager with Martin Fry when I did Nevermind the Buzzcocks in the UK. That’s how it came about and he was like, oh my god, yeah, he called my manager and said, I just met Debbie, and I think she’d be a perfect support act for us, so that’s how that happened.

The challenge for you must be to be able to cram a whole career’s worth of music into one hour or so?
I get an hour, which for support is great. I’ve become very, very good at creating mashups and medleys, so I’ll manage to get it all in there. I’ll manage to get the hits and some fun surprise covers, and there’s a big disco medley I do. I’ve kind of talked about it already, so it’s not like it’s a giant surprise, because I’ve been doing it here, but it does coincidentally feature a little Olivia and a little Kylie. So yeah, I’ll be doing that, and maybe a new song or two. So, I’ll get it all in there, don’t worry.

Does touring feel different now compared to back in the earlier days?
I mean, I take things in more now. I think back to life on the tour bus in 88, 89, and literally, there’s the whole country going by and of course, I did international, too, and even being in Australia around that time, I didn’t know how to balance my life as well. I would do a bit of sightseeing but I was always so hyper-focused on the show, and that’s still my focus, but what I’ve learned is part of connecting with people also. I mean, apart from the fact that everyone should be living their life to the fullest, right? Like, if you’re in an amazing, far-off land, you should be seeing the sights and tasting the foods and doing all the things. But even the connection to the audience and the way I write my songs, and if I’m not living a life off the stage, you kind of become disconnected.

So, I think that in a lot of ways, I was super connected to real life and my audience in high school. When I was making those first albums then I was living in a bit of a bubble and all I had to do to keep up. I’m enjoying myself now more than ever, is the point I’m trying to make. I really I savour everything, and observe everything, and every person I connect with, it’s meaningful. I love that there’s social media now, and I love that there’s VIP meet and greets now, although I used to stand outside by the bus in the freezing cold and sign every autograph anyway.

The fact that people know that their time is scheduled, we’ve scheduled these two hours to meet everybody, and I’m hyper-aware that somebody telling me something, they might have waited their whole life to tell me this story, or this memory, I get to help people create moments. I think the more time that’s gone on, the more I become aware of the fact that it’s an honour to be able to do that. I’m always like, wow, this is my life. I get to sing and dance and bring people joy and help people have a moment and see them, like, really see people. That’s what I love about touring, is I get to connect the dots of the people that, you know, it used to be a little more that it was like a sea of faces in the audience, but now I think everyone’s more connected, like artists and their audiences, so I love that about touring now.

Is it hard not to get swept up in the nostalgia of a tour like this?
I think what’s really special is having “firsts” at this point in my career, firsts for me, and firsts for people who are seeing me live for the very first time. It’s such a cool, energising thing and yes, people absolutely want to be taken back; that’s why I call my headline tours “newstalgia.” They want to feel everything they felt in that time and place, the 80s, that music, that joy. But I also think people want that nostalgia to fuel them moving forward in their lives now. It feeds something in them, it refreshes them, and maybe they walk into the office on Monday with a little extra joy because they reconnected with that part of themselves. My music has always been unapologetically upbeat, melodic, feel‑good. I loved when Kylie said in her documentary that great pop music provides joy, because joy is so important, now more than ever.

Do you notice the generational shift now in the supporter base, where a lot of younger faces are out there in the crowd, discovering your music for the first time?
There’s definitely parents with kids, and then I have people in their twenties and thirties, because all along the way, in the last few decades, there just kept being these moments where it was like, the 80s are back, the 80s are cool, the 80s are back. I think now they’re back and cooler than ever, but there were those moments of discovery for people, and I love seeing the younger fans who are celebrating the music.

How was the process of putting together your memoir, Eternally Electric?
I’m so glad it’s done and out the door. It was like being in therapy every all day, every day, for two years. I was touring at the same time, and I did it that way because I felt like it would give it a context to be able to say I’m backstage at the Electric Youth thirty-fifth anniversary show, and give people the sights, the sounds, the smells and the texture, right? But it was exhausting, and wild, because I I knew how much life I’d lived on the stage, off the stage, and all the challenges I’d gone through, but putting it down on paper there was a lot I couldn’t include, because there was that much. I really have not taken a lot of time off per se, and if I was off, it was the health journey, and I was figuring that out. I was always actively doing something, so there was a lot to write about. It was great to revisit, it was painful to revisit, I’m somebody who always tries to see things through other people’s eyes, so it was cool to be able to be like, you know, this relationship didn’t end well, maybe with a record company executive or whoever, but I wonder how that person is feeling now seeing me. It was a really kind of unbelievable reflection on a level.

Did you learn a lot about yourself, and are there some things there that you might have forgotten along the way that were positive moments that you’re able to even reflect on now?
I think back to the chaos of my thirties, parting ways in business with my late mom, dealing with financial and health troubles, even having to rehome my cat. I’ve always said there’s almost no lower point than feeling like you have to give up your pet. That was something I wrote about in the book: if you believe you’re stuck and there’s no solution, then you really are stuck. What’s powerful is realising how far I’ve come since then. My whole inner world back then felt tangled, and it took years of digging to slowly unwind all of that.

It was important for me to speak to people who are going through hard times, because you really do reach a crossroads, you either keep spiralling downward, or you pick yourself up and figure it out. And it doesn’t happen in a minute, or a month, or even a year. For me, it took a decade, maybe two. It took a very long time to reach a place where my life feels balanced and aligned. Now I feel clear, capable, and able to address things as they come instead of letting them pile up and take me down mentally, physically, or health‑wise. Writing from where I am now and looking back, I had this moment of, “Wow, look how far I’ve come.” Seeing that so clearly was exciting. I’m enjoying my life more than ever because I’ve unravelled so much and finally shaped my life into exactly what I want it to be.

That must be a really good feeling, to say, well, it is what it was, leave that in the past, and just move forward to what’s coming?
I’ve learned that you can only move forward, and that’s really what this chapter of my life has been about. I felt proud of myself, but also incredibly grateful for the people who supported me and helped me get to this new place. You really realise how many people it takes, how much belief it takes, and how much we all need to show up for each other, whether we’re entertainers or not. I’ve been lucky to have a village of people who said, “We’ve got you, Deb.” It’s extraordinary. I’m getting emotional even talking about it, because I finished the whole process feeling deeply, genuinely grateful.

If you were going to do a documentary, who do you reckon would be the lead role playing yourself?
Oh, like a docu-film, right? I honestly don’t know who would play me, but I do know what I’d want: I’d love to discover someone brand new, the way I was brand new. If someone were going to play me at fifteen, chasing that first record deal, I’d want to find that little girl sitting in her room writing songs, dreaming of acting, dreaming of everything. That idea gives me goose bumps, someone with that same hunger and naivete I had, before I’d ever travelled the world. That’s who I’d want.

But I’ve always said that if there were ever a movie about my life, I’d want to play my mother. I was there; I have her mannerisms, her energy, her perspective ingrained in me. And honestly, we’ve had those meetings and are still having them, because I truly believe my mom’s story is the most fascinating part of my story. I was just a little girl living my dream. She was a young mother who didn’t go to college, married early, had four daughters, and was trying to give each of us what we needed, like so many parents out there and then suddenly, my path became this huge, very public destiny.

Somehow, she figured it all out. I still look around this room at everything, including my Australian awards up on the shelf, and I think back to our little home studio in Merrick, Long Island. I remember the two of us sitting at the kitchen table, sending out headshots, résumés, demo tapes and that music took me all around the world. It’s astounding, because we didn’t know anything or anyone. She just figured it out.

If you could send a message to your younger self, what would you actually tell her?
Oh, my goodness, that’s so great. I would say, Deb, first of all, take a deep breath and get ready, because you’re going to have a wildly extraordinary life. I would say, don’t worry so much. I feel like we all would tell our younger selves, like. Don’t stress, don’t sweat the small things, and take everything in and savour every moment. That’s what I would say.

With all the touring that you have been doing, has that sort of inspired a whole new realm of creativity and possibly even leading to a new album or more songs?
Oh yeah, I’ve got my microphone, like, off to this. I’ve been recording in here, and I’m in that flow right now. Yeah, I’m in that flow, I’m in the new music flow. So, yeah. The answer to that is yes. Working on new music.

What’s the first thing you really want to do when you get to Australia?
Oh my gosh, I mean, once I’m recovered from the jet lag, which hopefully will happen pretty quickly, because I’ll be in Singapore before, I like integrating into, like, normal life, so I just want to step out onto a street near my hotel and just, you know, peruse the best local coffee shop, boutiques, and just meet people. That’s really what I want to do. I wouldn’t be mad if at some point I got to hold a koala again, because I did that for the first time. I have friends in every port, I don’t know if they’ll all be there, you know, from Tina Arena to Delta Goodrum, Jo Beth Taylor, there’s so many Aussies, I don’t know where they’ll all be, but got to go to look up some of my friends out there.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch Debbie Gibson on tour with Go West On the following dates, tickets from Destroy All Lines…