When Debbie Gibson was tapped to perform in the Rose Parade Grand Finale on New Year’s Day, she wasn’t just familiar with the world-famous Pasadena event from watching the broadcast.
“I’ve heard about it firsthand for so long from Jimmy Van Patten because he and his late dad, Dick, attended together so many times,” said the singer/songwriter/keyboardist/actress, in a phone interview from New York City, where she was preparing for some holiday concerts.
Actor Dick Van Patten (“Eight is Enough”) co-founded Natural Balance Pet Foods, which sponsored previous Rose Parade floats. Jimmy Van Patten, also an actor, is Gibson’s longtime friend and past music theater collaborator.
“I know it has a lot of heart,” she said. “I’ve never been involved in a parade before where there is so much care about the detail of creating an arrangement to perform a song in a way that no one’s ever heard it before.”
Gibson confirmed she will “pack a lot in” to the performance.
“I get to showcase all my skills in a very short amount of time; in a very dramatic and theatrical way.”
The organizers’ attention to precision extends to her costume design.
“I will be donning some roses,” shared Gibson. “I’m used to putting all that together myself, but the parade committee and producers have such a strong vision and high caliber of how they want things presented. I feel so taken care of and I’m just so excited to do this.”
“I love sharing the stage with Betty Who and the parade route with Debbie Allen and her awesome dance company to have three generations of women celebrated,” Gibson, 54, enthused.
Gibson was a pop music trailblazer at age 16. She co-wrote, co-produced and performed all the songs on her 1987 debut album “Out of the Blue,” which reached the top 10 and spawned four top five singles on the Billboard charts (including the No. 1 “Foolish Beat”). And 1989’s “Electric Youth” also went multi-platinum, contained another Hot 100 chart topper (“Lost in Your Eyes”) and a couple more top 20 placements.
Soon after, Gibson segued into acting roles while continuing to release albums. She did 17 musicals in 17 years (notably “Les Miserables” and “Cabaret” on Broadway) and has multiple film/TV credits (“Rock of Ages,” The Hallmark Channel’s “Summer of Dreams,” Netflix’s “Lucifer,” “The Class,” with Anthony Michael Hall).
In 2022, the entertainer released “Winterlicious,” her impressive first holiday album. “I always vowed, until I have something really spectacular to say musically, I’m just going to stay quiet,” she said, about why now was the right time for it.
Half the songs are Gibson originals, along with covers of Christmas classics, the Sammy Davis Jr.-popularized “The Candy Man” (“it feels festive, like the holidays to me and harkens back to our youth”); and “Heartbreak Holiday,” her second duet with New Kids on the Block’s Joey McIntyre over the past few years.
They previously did a mini-Vegas residency together and remade “Lost in Your Eyes” for Gibson’s 2021 studio album “The Body Remembers.”
Additionally, Gibson toured with NKOTB in 2019.
She described the McIntyre collaboration as “a magical thing,” recalling how “audiences loved it” and some fans commented, “It’s our idol and our crush together.”
All those positive reactions to the nostalgic pairing made Gibson imagine fans as “little girls and boys with their Bop and Teen Beat magazines” and both singers’ photos plastered on their walls.
Gibson said their connection arises from the fact that “he and I are so similar in our work ethic and how we’re always wanting to top ourselves with what we’re doing. We’re both Broadway kids. Betty Who is a Broadway baby as well. I’m super excited to meet her” at the parade.
George A. Paul, whose first concert was Neil Diamond at The Fabulous Forum in 1983, has written about entertainment since the early 1990s. He also posts music news, reviews and interviews at newwavegeo.blogspot.com.
