Me & Debbie Gibson

As you may have guessed from reading my blog, I do not possess the gene that allows me to stop liking things. Hence, Debbie Gibson has been my favorite singer since I was 14 years old. So you can imagine that I was pretty excited to get the chance to meet Debbie (or Deborah as she is known now) on a promotional tour in 1995.

After four albums and eight years with Atlantic Records, Debbie released her fifth CD, THINK WITH YOUR HEART, on a smaller label. I'm sure I ran out and bought a copy the day it came out. In the liner notes of the CD there was a phone number to call for information on what Debbie was up to. Of course, I gave it a call and was thrilled to hear that Deb was doing an instore appearance at a Borders in Pentagon City in just a couple of days. I scrambled to find some friends to go with me, which I thought would be hard but everybody knew how excited I was and I managed to get three friends to go with me!

We all hopped onto the DC Metro and made the trip out to Pentagon City. Expecting there to be a crowd like at any instore appearance by a celebrity, we arrived early only to find a few other people staked out that far in advance. It turned out not only was Debbie Gibson signing autographs she was going to perform a few songs on piano as well. As the crowds started to arrive, those of us that were there first got roped off in a section right with Debbie's piano.

When she came out, we ended up standing right around the piano, as Debbie performed about 45 minutes of old and new songs. It was quite an experience! Then after her show, we were among the first to get autographs. I bought another copy of her new CD so that I could have it signed and when it was my turn to see her, she was very nice and friendly and even commented on how much she liked my Fred Flintstone hat that I was wearing!

Obviously after having been such a big fan for so long, it was exhilarating to get to meet her face to face! If only she had know that when I was 14 years old I had over 200 pictures of her on my bedroom wall, she might have kept her distance from me!