Debbie Gibson on her momager: ‘She literally banged her fists on the conference room table at Atlantic’
nypost.comat Manhattan’s 54 Below — after opening night on Thursday, she returns for two more shows on Sunday and Monday — she’s showing her love for her mother Diane Gibson, who passed away in January.“This was very much a homecoming — and very much a tribute to my mom,” Gibson, who now lives in Las Vegas, told The Post. “Listen, I would never have had that moment without my mom — launching a record at 16, the two of us not knowing anything or anyone in the business, and actually seeing these songs to the top of the charts.”Indeed, 35 years after those “Out of the Blue” hits “Only in My Dreams,” “Shake Your Love,” “Foolish Beat” and the title track made Gibson a certified star when she was just 17, she is looking back on her mother as a “pioneer” who managed the most famous of her four daughters for 25 years.“You know, she was a music executive in a very male-dominated world,” said Gibson. “And to be the mother manager, there was such a stigma attached to that, and she knew that she had to know 10 times more than any of the men knew to be taken seriously.”In fact, it was Mama Gibson who fiercely insisted that her daughter could write and produce her No.
1 hit “Foolish Beat” all by herself. And three and a half decades later, she remains the youngest female artist to have accomplished that femmetastic feat.“I’ll never forget the meeting where she literally banged her fists on the conference room table at Atlantic Records with primarily men in suits sitting around laughing at the thought that I was going to produce ‘Foolish Beat,’ ” said Gibson. “And she’s like, ‘Well, listen to the demo.
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