Tiffany

Artist Bio

The most fascinating artists have both darkness and light. No one understands that duality better than Tiffany. She’s the former teen icon with the scars of alifer. A multi-million-selling phenomenon whose outward success story belies bad romances and bum deals. A genre-blind singer/songwriter who writes starkly personal lyrics that make entire stadiums sing along.

As such, when it came to naming her new studio album, one title called out. “Shadows is about the light and dark of my life,” says Tiffany. “The heartbreak that nobody knows about, when you’re trying to be fabulous on stage. My life has never been perfect. But maybe all those things are meant to be. And what helps me more than anything is writing songs.”

Tiffany’s life can be measured in songs. Anyone with even a casual eye on pop culture will remember her breakout in the late-’80s, sparked by the transatlantic #1 smash, "I Think We’re Alone Now." But the fans who have made the journey with her since know that the best stuff came later, as the singer fought her way to the music she burned to record, from 1993’s restorative Dreams Never Die, through the pulsing electrobangers of 2005’s Dust Off And Dance, right up to 2018’s highly acclaimed Pieces Of Me. “It’s an album highlighting an artist at the top of their game,” wrote Get Ready To Rock of the latter, “producing music from the heart.”

“It’s been a long journey to get back,” reflects the singer. “There can be a lot of discouragement, naysayers and obstacles. But you’ve got to keep on swinging. You’ve got to have a lion heart. For Shadows, I found the right people and that made me bold.”

The songs that Tiffany brought to the Shadows sessions at Rockfield Studios – some rowdy and brittle, others tender and feather-soft – are a candid snapshot of her life as she steps into her fifth decade. But listen a little harder and you’ll hear everything that has ledher here, for better and worse.

Born in Norwalk, California, on October 2nd, 1971 – and carrying a tune from the age of two–Tiffany barely remembers her life before the stage. She was a pageant girl, then a dancer, before, aged nine, she sang at a friend’s birthday party and the clocks stopped. “There I was, nine years old, and I sounded like a 30-year-old woman,” she recalls. “Not being in the music industry, my parents had no idea how to begin, but we just started there.”

Even in the Golden State, Tiffany’s home, life came with storm clouds. “My parents were lovely people, but there were issues with alcohol, a turmoil there,” she says. “You’d hear the crying at night, the screaming, the rows, and wonder if you’re even going to have a place to stay the next day.”

Through the chaos, music was her lifeline. In the early-’80s, all over San Diego, from the fairgrounds of Del Mar to the country music circuit, Tiffany was a livewire presence, singing out her heart and soaking up the wisdom of the greats whose orbit she now moved in. “From artists like Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and George Jones, I learned to live out loud,” she reflects. “They woke up and that’s who they were. They lived their life through music.”

All the while, Tiffany was feeding the insatiable muse that is evident on Shadows. “I had an older cousin who was listening to AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Heart,” she reflects. "I’d ask my best friend to buy my records at the music store when I was too embarrassed, because I had Barbra Streisand, Ozzy Osbourne, and James Taylor. I love Joni Mitchell. Joan Baez. Huge Bob Dylan fan. And with artists like Stevie Nicks and Deborah Harry, it wasn’t just the music that inspired me, it was their strength.These are women who have made it through the good, the bad and the ugly.”

The passing decades would see Tiffany suffering her own body blows, from the painful court case in which she fought her parents for control of her career to the relationships that rose and fell in the public eye. “Sometimes,” she laughs darkly, “my girlfriends will make a joke and say, ‘You just date the same person over and over again...’”

But while a lesser artist might retreat to lick their wounds, Tiffany always used her hard-won experience as rocket fuel. Driven by that unmistakable grit-and-honey voice, Shadows feels wrenched from the depths, from the defiant primal-scream rocker "Cried For The Last Time" to the bruised electro ballad "I’ll Meet You Anywhere." “On this album, there’s a pop base with rock edge,” she considers. “There’s a definite retro sound on songs like 'Shadows' and 'Lost Inside.' They have that punky, ’80s, Go-Gos, Blondie, Pat Benatar kinda feel with a more modern rock attitude. I want people to sing along.”

Producer Mark Alberici and the first-call studio band ensured that Shadows roars from the speakers. But perhaps the record’s greatest power comes from Tiffany’s unflinching lyrics. “'I Like The Rain' is saying that I almost choose the chaos in my life,” she says of the riff-driven groove, “while 'You’re My Everything' was about having a big row with my boyfriend, but instead of the end of our relationship being ugly, I wanted it to be beautiful.”

Elsewhere, smoky torch song "Bed Of Nails" was so heartfelt that Tiffany caught the vocal in a single late-night take. “It’s quite a dark song and I just purged myself. I walked up to the mic and it was literally one pass, which is what you hear on the record. I’m writing about a relationship where two people aren’t getting what they want out of it, yet they’ve sacrificed a lot to be there. At the time, my boyfriend and I were both divorcing other people. With a lot of these songs, I’m sharing my vulnerability with you.”

All of our lives come with shadows. But with her latest studio album, Tiffany invites her fans to walk with her into the light. “These last few years, we’ve all been through a really hard time,” she considers. “People have been through divorces, lost jobs, family members, friends. I know I have. You have to carry on, but there’s a sadness and loneliness.

“That’s where music comes in,” she counters. “It bonds people. For me, it recharges my batteries, getting that validation, seeing those smiles, getting the fans to go on the next journey with me. Who knows where I’m going next? But I’m a lifer. There’s no plan B. I think I’m doing my best material now. I know myself more–and I’m singing the best I ever have...”

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