Heart made of glass: Blondie singer Debbie Harry is 80

Heart made of glass: Blondie singer Debbie Harry is 80

Suddenly she was everywhere again, this beguilingly clear voice, which could switch from a ripped-off coolness to the Glockenhell-Himmlische within a few seconds. “Mariaaaa, you got to see”, Sang Debbie Harry in 1999 with this unmistakable lightness, which had had the career of her band Blondie withdrawn more than two decades earlier.

“Maria” gave her an unexpected comeback that, thanks to MTV duration rotation, she also made her known to a young audience that didn’t know about the legendary blonde beginnings in New York late seventies and early eighties.

Founded in 1974 by Debbie Harry and her partner Chris Stein, after a respectable debut album, four years later, the third record “Parallel Lines” went straight towards Starruhm. Like Blondie Girl-Group-POWING with a rough garage skirt sound, it was extremely stirring and made it a figurehead of the New Wave.

The group was first worshiped in England before the “Heart of Glass” written by Harry and Stein also became a hit in the USA and the mainstream breakthrough succeeded. They mixed the genres, made great cover versions (“Hanging on the Telephone”, “Denise”) and, with “Rapture”, brought the first song with rap elements to the US chart tip. Blondie sold around 40 million albums.

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The musicians were always in the shade of their hydrogen blonde -colored singer, whose nickname had become her band name. Harrry, with her look based on Marilyn Monroe and her confident appearance, simply spread the largest glamor. Andy Warhol portrayed her, later inspired Madonna and Lady Gaga.

The singer was born on July 1, 1945 in Miami. When she was adopted at the age of three months, her parents changed her name from Angela Trimble in Deborah Ann Harry. She grew up in New Jersey, made her college and went to New York at the end of the sixties, where she initially beat her up as a waitress, secretary and playboy-bunny. Finally, she managed to switch to the pop business, although Blondie’s heyday lasting only briefly: In 1982, with “The Hunter”, they brought out a weak sixth album and dissolved a little later.

In addition to their drug use, Harry and Stein soon had different worries: the guitarist got seriously ill, she cared for him for years. In 1989 the two separated, but remained friends. Debbie Harry has also published solo albums, but similar to how the works after the blonde reunion in the late 1990s could never develop the radiance of the early work.

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Nevertheless, it was a pleasure to experience the group on tour again in the ten years, for example in the Berlin Tempodrom, where Debbie Harry 2014 with blond pagenkopf, Discodirndl and Lamettanschette on the wrist, praised the city and struggled to sing against the mud sound. The fact that her voice had lost strength in the high layers made the appearance no less likeable.

In the meantime, the singer, who also played in numerous films and series, has no nerve for concerts, as she said to the British “Times” in an interview at the beginning of the year and pushed afterwards: “Should I go out and celebrate every night?” Apparently this is no longer her thing.

Debbie Harry may still sing, also on a record. So she recently recorded the duet “Heart’s A Liar” with Andy Bell (Erasure), a nice electropopous song with a slight blondie vibe. There could also be a new blondie album this year. Chris Stein announced it last year. However, drummer Clem Burke died in April, who was involved in the band’s records. Blondie have to cope with that first.

“The bad thing about getting older is that everyone is already gone,” said Debbie Harry recently in an interview. She is still there and celebrates her 80th birthday on Tuesday. (with EPD)

Source: Tagesspiegel

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