Tiffany (singer)
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Tiffany Renee Darwish (born October 2, 1971 in California; sometimes mistakenly reported as being born in Oklahoma, where she has some relatives), better known in the music world as Tiffany, is an American singer who had a number of "teen pop" hits during the late 1980s. She is of Lebanese and Syrian descent.
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Life and Career History
Tiffany grew up in Norwalk, California. Her parents divorced when she was very young. When Tiffany was four years old, she learned the words to the song Delta Dawn, and she started singing it often.
In 1977, Tiffany's mother married, and in 1979, Tiffany's sister Falicia Williams was born.
In 1981, Tiffany made her first professional singing show, with a country music band at a country and western spot. She passed a hat along the crowd afterward, and collected $235 in what would be her first career earning.
Tiffany used to sing at a Los Angeles club named El Palomino when she was discovered by Hoyt Axton and his wife Mae Axton, who took her (Mae) to sing in Nashville, Tennessee, where she performs at the Ralph Emery Show. In 1982 Tiffany tours several cities in Alaska, earning 3,000 dollars for the tour. Also that year, she was an opening act for Jerry Lee Lewis and for George Jones.
In 1983, Tiffany's other sister, Cheressa Williams, is born. Ronald Kent Surut became her manager that year.
Finally, in 1984, she was signed to a recording contract by George Tobin, who heard a demo tape she recorded and liked it. Also that year, a messy divorce between her mom and her stepfather occurred, when he was allegedly caught peeping on her. He maintains that he was not trying to look at her in a lewd way, just making sure Tiffany did her breathing exercises.
Another 1984 event that later provoked controversy among Tiffany fans was the release of a song entitled "Remembering Love", credited to "Tiffany", in Canada, followed up in 1987 by another song "In The Dark". Fans debated endlessly whether these were by "the" Tiffany or not, and even Tiffany's own denial wasn't always fully trusted (people sometimes suggested that she was either mistaken or was trying to cover up early failures in her career). However, these releases were ultimately found to be by Canadian singer Kimberly Warnock, who has sometimes used the stage name "Tiffany" but has no connection with the more famous singer of that name.
In 1985 Tiffany appeared at the Star Search show with Ed McMahon, but she came in second place that year. In 1986, she signs a contract that gives Tobin total control over her career. Then, she went into the studio to record her first album, and a contract was signed with MCA. In 1987 the self titled album, Tiffany, was released and she embarked on a mall tour to promote it. Her cover of the Shondells hit, "I Think We're Alone Now", became a number 1 hit on the Billboard chart, propelling Tiffany to international stardom. Soon, she was vying with Debbie Gibson for space on the covers of many teen magazines, including Tiger Beat, Teen Beat and many others, and visiting multiple television shows on MTV, Fox, etc. In '87 also, she cast the then-unknown singing group New Kids On The Block as the starting act for her concerts. She was signed to do the voice of Judy Jetson for Jetsons: The Movie in 1989, but not before another hit following "I Think We're Alone Now" to the top in 1988 -- Her song "Could've been" also made it to the top of the Billboard charts. Another one of her hits was "Promises Made, Promises Broken".
In 1989 also, she bought a mansion that used to belong to action movie star Chuck Norris, but later sold it. She also released her second album, Hold An Old Friend's Hand. It did not do as well as her first album as it did not spawn any number one hits, though the song "All This Time" made the top ten. Hold An Old Friend's Hand recieved mixed reviews from critics.
Her career suffered as musical tastes changed in the early 1990s, swinging away from teen pop towards harder-edged rock and rap. This was shown in her third album, New Inside. It was her first album away from Tobin, and some of her fans felt it was missing all the fun that was had in the first two albums. New Inside got some good reviews from critics, but failed to make the charts at all, although she made several TV appearances to promote it including on the sitcom Out of This World. Tiffany never regained her "Teen Queen" popularity.
In 1992, she married make up artist Bulmaro Garcia and in September 17 of that year she gave birth to Elijah Garcia. In a brief early-1990s comeback attempt, she got back together with Tobin, released the album Dreams Never Die in Asia (but not in the United States), and did some performances at the Las Vegas Hilton, before breaking with Tobin again. In 1995, she moved to Nashville to attempt a country music career, but never released any music of that genre. In 2002, she was the subject of an E! True Hollywood Story television show. She also had a greatest hits album released in Singapore and three in Japan, and she posed nude for Playboy magazine.
In 2000, her "comeback" album The Color of Silence was released, and got some very good reviews, but was still not a big seller.
On August 1, 2004, after divorcing her first husband, she married a British man named Ben, and now spends most of her time in the United Kingdom.
On April 2 , 2005, Tiffany featured in British TV show Hit Me Baby One More Time, winning the first heat and subsequently securing a place in the show's final; however, she lost in the final. She also appeared on the U.S. version of the show on June 2, 2005, but lost. The show aims to bring former popstars back into the limelight.
On April 8, 2005, Tiffany's new web site went online with a new address www.TiffanyMusicsite.com (http://www.tiffanymusicsite.com).
In May, 2005, she released her new album, Dust Off And Dance, through the CD Baby (http://www.cdbaby.com/) site.
Discography
Albums
- 1987 Tiffany #1 US, #5 UK (1988 release)
- 1988 Hold an Old Friend's Hand #17 US
- 1988 I Saw Him Standing There (EP; Japanese release)
- 1990 New Inside
- 1993 Dreams Never Die (released in multiple Asian countries but not in the US)
- 1994 Best of Best (Japanese release; greatest-hits compilation)
- 1995 All The Best (Singapore release; greatest-hits compilation with 2 new songs)
- 1996 Best One (Japanese release; greatest-hits compilation)
- 1996 Greatest Hits (US release)
- 2000 The Color of Silence
- 2005 Dust Off And Dance
Hit singles
- from "Tiffany"
- 1987 "I Think We're Alone Now" #1 US, #1 UK (1988 release)
- 1987 "Could've Been" #1 US, # 4 UK (1988 release)
- 1988 "I Saw Him Standing There" #7 US, #8 UK
- 1988 "Feelings Of Forever"
- from "Hold an Old Friend's Hand"
- 1988 "All This Time" #6 US
- 1988 "Radio Romance" #35 US, #13 UK
In addition, her music has been on featured on countless soundtracks.
External links
- Official site (http://www.tiffanymusicsite.com/)
- Fan site (http://www.mbreo.com/tiffany/)
- Fan site (http://www.tiffany.org/)
- Fan site (http://www.TiffanySmiles.com/)