Tiffany (singer)

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Image:Tiffany at Gulfstream Park, 2003.jpg

Tiffany Renee Darwish (born October 2, 1971 in Norwalk, 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.

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Life and Career History

Tiffany grew up in Norwalk with parents James Robert Darwish (of part Lebanese/Syrian descent) and Janie Wilson (of mostly Irish and some distant Cherokee descent). 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 Dan Williams, and in 1979, Tiffany's half-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 US $235 in what would be her first career earnings.

Tiffany was singing 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 performed at the Ralph Emery Show. In 1982 Tiffany tours several cities in Alaska, earning US $3000 for the tour. Also that year, she was an opening act for Jerry Lee Lewis and for George Jones.

In 1983, Tiffany's other half-sister, Charessa Williams, was 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 mother and stepfather occurred, when he was allegedly caught peeping on Tiffany. 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 on Star Search with Ed McMahon, but she came in second place that year. In 1986, she signed a contract that gave 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 eponymous album, Tiffany, was released and she embarked on a mall tour to promote it. Her cover of the Tommy James & the Shondells hit, "I Think We're Alone Now", became a number one smash 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. Her song "Could've Been" also shot to the #1 spot of the Billboard charts in February of '88. "I Saw Him Standing There" and "Feelings of Forever" also saw chart success from the 6-million selling debut. Later that year, she cast the then-unknown singing group New Kids On The Block as the opening act for her concert tour.

In 1989 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 received mixed reviews from critics but eventually went double-platinum. Later that year, she signed on to provide the voice of Judy Jetson for Jetsons: The Movie, released in 1990.

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, the R&B influenced New Inside. It was her first album away from Tobin, and some of her fans felt the new soulful, sultrier Tiffany was a hard sell. New Inside received 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.

Image:Playboy April 2002.jpg In 1992, she married make up artist Bulmaro Garcia and on September 17 of that year she gave birth to her son 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. At the age of 31, she appeared in a nude photo spread for Playboy magazine.

In 2000, her "comeback" album, The Color of Silence, was released, and received stellar reviews. Billboard pegged it as "one of the best pop albums of the year" and the year's "biggest surprise". Despite the critical validation - and a record-breaking turnout for her college campus tour - a record deal with a shady, now defunct company and the unfortunate stigmas attached to the name "Tiffany" hindered the album's potential success.

On August 1, 2004, after divorcing her first husband Bulmaro, she married a British man named Ben George, and now divides her time between Cannock, a small town near Wolverhampton, England and Los Angeles.

On April 2 , 2005, Tiffany was 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. She also appeared on the U.S. version of the show on June 2, 2005, but lost. The show aims to bring former pop stars back into the limelight.

In May, 2005, she released her latest album, Dust Off And Dance, independently and through CDBaby (and later also for download on the iTunes music store). It was dedicated to her new husband but recorded as a thank you to her fans (particularly her gay and euro fanbase) for reminding her about the fun to be had with her career, and it serves as a reminder of a lighter time when she could lose herself on the dance floor.

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Discography

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Regular studio albums

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Other albums

  • 1988 I Saw Him Standing There (EP; Japanese release)
  • 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 (U.S. release)
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Hit singles

  • from "Tiffany"
    • 1987 "I Think We're Alone Now" #1 U.S., #1 UK (1988 release)
    • 1987 "Could've Been" #1 U.S., # 4 UK (1988 release)
    • 1988 "I Saw Him Standing There" #7 U.S., #8 UK
    • 1988 "Feelings of Forever" #55 U.S., #52 UK
  • from "Hold an Old Friend's Hand"
    • 1988 "All This Time" #6 U.S.
    • 1988 "Radio Romance" #35 U.S., #13 UK

In addition, her music has been on featured on countless soundtracks.

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External links


{{Persondata |NAME=Darwish, Tiffany Renee |ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Tiffany |SHORT DESCRIPTION=Singer |DATE OF BIRTH=October 2, 1971 |PLACE OF BIRTH=Norwalk, California |DATE OF DEATH= |PLACE OF DEATH= }}

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