Official Deborah Gibson Website

St. Cloud Times.com - February 2006

Singer Deborah Gibson just skated off Fox's "Skating with Celebrities," but she has plenty of other projects to keep her busy. The 1980s pop singer known as Debbie Gibson and her skating partner Kurt Browning were bumped off the reality show competition Jan. 30. The end of her skating career hasn't left Gibson twiddling her thumbs, though. She's been a little busy touring with The O'Neill Brothers, performing in "Cabaret," working on new music and two musicals she wrote. Gibson and The O'Neill Brothers perform Monday at the Paramount Theatre. The tour includes a Valentine's Day performance in Minneapolis. Gibson contributed her voice to two songs on The O'Neill Brothers latest CD, "Someone You Love." The album features 15 love songs performed by the piano-playing brothers, Tim and Ryan, who are based in New Prague. Gibson sings the title song, "Someone You Love," and a reimagined version of her 1980s hit "Lost In Your Eyes." Gibson, who has performed in numerous Broadway musicals, decided to work with The O'Neill Brothers after the duo asked her about singing and touring with them. "I admired not only their talent, but their marketing ability," Gibson said during a phone interview. The O'Neill Brothers have independently released 21 albums and sold more than 1 million CDs — an unusual accomplishment for artists who aren't associated with a major label. She also enjoyed "reinventing" her song, "Lost in Your Eyes," and said she likes performing her hits from the '80s, which include "Electric Youth," "Only In My Dreams," "Foolish Beat" and others. "Every concert I do, I own my past," she said. "Those are songs that I wrote. They were a part of me." Gibson became the youngest person to write, produce and perform a hit single when she released "Foolish Beat" at 16. She's continued to write music and release albums, although her work from the 1990s didn't reach the same level of fame as her '80s albums. Since 1992, Gibson has performed in numerous musical productions — including "Les Miserables" and "Grease" — on and off Broadway. She's also written two musicals, "Skirts" and "The Flunkie," which she hopes to perform one day. In a few weeks she'll reprise her role as Sally Bowles in "Cabaret" at the North Carolina Theatre. So why in the world was a former pop princess with a busy work schedule trying to learn to skate on national television? "It was one of the most fun things I've done in my whole life," Gibson said. "It was all fun and challenging." But it did mean "perpetual pain" and "trips to the physical therapist," she said. She even continued to gig while rehearsing for the show, which was pre-taped. She handled the danger by trying not to think about it. "The more you think 'I'm going to fall,' you're going to fall," she said.