Tiffany

Tiffany Renee Darwish (born October 2, 1971), simply known by her mononym Tiffany, is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and former teen icon. She is most notable for her 1987 cover of “I Think We’re Alone Now,” a song originally recorded by Tommy James and the Shondells in 1967. Released as the second single from her eponymous album, Tiffany, the song quickly became a teen anthem.

Thanks to an original mall tour, “The Beautiful You: Celebrating The Good Life Shopping Mall Tour ’87”, Tiffany found commercial success; both the single and the album peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200 charts, respectively. The singles “Could’ve Been” and “I Saw Him Standing There“, a cover version of The Beatles‘ “I Saw Her Standing There“, followed soon after, with the former also claiming the No. 1 position on the Hot 100.

Although Tiffany’s second album, Hold an Old Friend’s Hand, managed to yield a top-10 single and chart in the upper register of the Billboard 200 in 1988, and ultimately became a platinum-selling album, it failed to replicate the success of her debut album. The 1990s had two additional releases, 1990’s New Inside and the Asia-exclusive Dreams Never Die, both of which failed to rekindle substantial interest. Tiffany returned in 2001 with her first album in six years, The Color of Silence.

Although the album received some minor critical success, it failed to achieve any significant standing. Since then, Tiffany recorded four additional full-length albums, including an album of 1980s cover songs, focusing on a variety of genres, including country and dance, and she continues to tour. Outside of music, Tiffany posed nude in Playboy and guest-starred in several television shows, including Celebrity Fit Club, Australia’s version of I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here and Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling, and the movies Necrosis, Mega Piranha, and Mega Python vs. Gatoroid, the latter co-starring fellow 1980s teen idol and musical rival Debbie Gibson.

Tiffany was born in 1971 to James Robert Darwish and Janie Wilson, who divorced when she was very young. She grew up in Norwalk, California.

Tiffany began singing around 1975, when she was four years old, and learned the words to the song “Delta Dawn“. After the divorce, she resided with her father, but in her adolescence she rebelled against his strict Baptist parenting. While attending Leffingwell Christian High School, a group of friends and she behaved in a manner which contravened school regulations; she acknowledged this on Celebrity Ghost Stories in 2012.

In 1981, Tiffany debuted with country music singer Jack Reeves at a country and western venue, Narods, in Chino, California. She passed a hat among the crowd afterwards, and collected $235 in what was her first career earnings.

When Tiffany was singing at the Palomino Club (North Hollywood), she was discovered by Hoyt Axton and his mother Mae Axton. Mae took her to sing in Nashville, Tennessee, where she performed at the Ralph Emery Show, singing Juice Newton‘s “Queen of Hearts” and Tammy Wynette‘s “Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad”.

In 1982, Tiffany toured several cities in Alaska. Also that year, she performed on the same bill as Jerry Lee Lewis and George Jones.

Until at least 1987, she was managed by George Tobin. In 1984, she signed a recording contract after Tobin heard a demo tape that she had recorded. In 1985, she appeared on Star Search with Ed McMahon, where she finished in second place overall. In 1986, Tiffany signed a contract that gave Tobin total control over her career. She recorded her first studio album and was signed to an MCA contract. Tiffany’s album, Tiffany, was released in 1987, but the first single she released from it, “Danny”, failed to chart. Following the failure of “Danny”, Tobin sent Tiffany on a nationwide tour of shopping malls, The Beautiful You: Celebrating the Good Life Shopping Mall Tour ’87. The tour began at Bergen Mall in Paramus, New Jersey. Her second single, a cover of Tommy James & the Shondells‘ hit, “I Think We’re Alone Now“, became a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 list. It remains her biggest hit.

Tiffany’s ballad “Could’ve Been” also peaked at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard charts in February 1988. Tiffany’s modified version of the Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There“, retitled “I Saw Him Standing There“, peaked at the No. 7 position on the Hot 100. “Feelings of Forever” also had chart success from the over 4.1 million selling debut.

Tiffany set a record for the youngest female artist to top the Billboard charts with a debut album. Later that year, Tiffany discovered New Kids on the Block and hired them as her opening act for her concert tour.

In 1988, at the peak of her popularity, Tiffany ended up in the middle of a conflict in which Tobin, then still her manager, was embroiled with her mother and her stepfather over control of her career and earnings. This led to a court fight which included an attempt by Tiffany to have herself declared an emancipated minor. This was rejected by the court; however, the judge did allow her to move out of her mother’s home due to obvious conflicts, and her grandmother (who supported and sided with Tiffany during the trial) became her temporary guardian. These legal battles took a toll on the singer’s career.

In late 1988, Tiffany released her second album, Hold an Old Friend’s Hand. The first single “All This Time” made the top 10. Hold an Old Friend’s Hand received positive reviews from critics, and immediately went platinum. Later that year, she provided the voice of Judy Jetson on Jetsons: The Movie, which was released in 1990. She also contributed three songs to the soundtrack, including the single “I Always Thought I’d See You Again”. Some controversy resulted from the fact that Janet Waldo, who had voiced the character in all previous Jetsons material, had had all of her recorded dialogue in the movie replaced by Tiffany’s voice. The replacement was made by Universal due to Tiffany’s international worldwide stardom and household name recognition.

Shortly after her eighteenth birthday, Tiffany left Tobin’s management and signed with Dick Scott and Kim Glover, who managed New Kids on the Block, who had become massively successful.

Tiffany has made a foray in films and television shows. Her first acting job was providing the voice of Judy Jetson on Jetsons: The Movie, where she replaced Janet Waldo because studio executives thought Tiffany would attract a younger audience. She contributed three songs to the soundtrack, including the main song “You and Me”.

In 2002, she appeared on the short-lived sitcom That ’80s Show as Candy, an employee of a punk nightclub called Chaos.

In April 2008, Tiffany starred in a national commercial campaign for AT&T titled “Paradise by the GoPhone Light” for AT&T’s GoPhone, which featured Meat Loaf. The ad, which parodies his “Paradise by the Dashboard Light“, has been released in two versions, an extended music video version and a short commercial edit.

Also in April 2008, Tiffany made a cameo appearance on the situation comedy How I Met Your Mother in the episode “Sandcastles in the Sand“, playing herself as a backup singer in the 1980s-inspired music video by a fictional teen Canadian pop star named Robin Sparkles who was inspired by real life singers like Tiffany making a career out of performing in malls.

Tiffany starred in the 2008 short film The Isolationist, which made the film festival rounds. Her character, Barbara Newman, is a sexually aggressive woman unwilling to let a co-worker enjoy some alone time. In 2009, she completed work on her first feature film, Necrosis, which was released internationally as Blood Snow. Necrosis was a psychological thriller in which she starred alongside James Kyson Lee and George Stults. In the film, she acted out the role of Karen, a fun-loving adrenaline junkie who took matters into her own hands after a blizzard had trapped her friends and her in a cabin, and paranoia got the best of them. Necrosis premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Tiffany’s former music rival, Debbie Gibson, had her film Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus premiere at Cannes, as well. Tiffany also starred in a film from The Asylum, the mockbuster Mega Piranha, directed by Eric Forsberg, which also starred Barry Williams. Mega Piranha was the highest-rated SyFy movie of 2011.

Tiffany and Gibson likewise starred in a Syfy original movie Mega Python vs. Gatoroid, which aired January 29, 2011. Featured in the movie was a protracted catfight waged between Tiffany and Gibson.

The 2008 documentary I Think We’re Alone Now was about two fans of Tiffany who both claimed to be in love with her, and had been labeled “stalkers” by the media. The program followed them through their lives as they discussed the source of their obsession.

In 2013, she starred in a Miracle Whip commercial “Keep an Open Mouth” alongside Wynonna Judd, Lance Bass, Susan Boyle, The Village People, and other iconic celebrities. The same year, she participated in the Klondike Celebrity Challenge where she was dared to relive her ’80s years by singing in a mall.

She is of Irish and Native American descent from her maternal side and Syrian and Lebanese descent from her paternal side. Tiffany married makeup artist Bulmaro Garcia in 1992. Their only son, Elijah Garcia, was born on September 17, 1992. They divorced in 2003.

She married British businessman Ben George in 2004. In May 2018, Tiffany confirmed that the couple had mutually agreed to separate at an undisclosed time.

In 2011, she filmed an episode of the Biography Channel TV series Celebrity Close Calls. On the episode first broadcast July 7, 2013, of the reality TV series Celebrity Wife Swap, she traded places with actress/singer Nia Peeples.