About this Artist
The name Debbie Harry evokes many images: seminal rock-n-roll figure, complex songstress, incandescent front woman, actor and fashion icon. Debbie’s chart-topping success, fearless spirit and rare longevity - including more than 50 million albums sold worldwide and acclaimed solo projects - have cemented her as a vibrant global force and a shaper of pop culture.
With Blondie, undeniably one of the most trailblazing and influential bands of our time, Debbie and co-founder Chris Stein brought the worlds of rock, punk, disco and Reggae together with “Heart of Glass” and “Call Me” and broke ground by combining hip-hop and pop on “Rapture.” Their decades-long successes led to an induction into the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame for the band in 2006. As a solo artist, Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards co-produced her first release Koo Koo in 1981 and she continued to defy expectations with such genre-busting efforts as “French Kissing in the U.S.A.,” “Rush Rush,” “Rain,” and “The Jam Was Moving.” Debbie has also had a long running collaboration with the critically acclaimed American jazz group, The Jazz Passengers, stalwarts of New York's free-jazz scene. Her spectacular voice drips with a sophisticated elegance rarely heard in pop music as she continues to infuse her work with an exquisite artistic sensibility.
Outside of music, Debbie has also engaged in a successful acting career with over 30 film and television roles to her credit (including Videodrome, Hairspray, and Heavy to name a few). She has become and still remains a true national treasure, one whose influence continues to impact the worlds of music, fashion and art.
More recently, Debbie became a best selling author with the release of her memoir, FACE IT. In an arresting mix of visceral storytelling and stunning visuals including never-before-seen photographs, bespoke illustrations and fan art installations, FACE IT upended the standard musical memoir while delivering a truly intimate portrait of an iconoclast. With all the grit, grime and glory recounted in intimate detail, FACE IT recreated the downtown scene of 1970s New York City, where Blondie played alongside The Ramones, Television, Talking Heads, Iggy Pop and David Bowie. Following her path from glorious commercial success to heroin addiction, the near-death of partner Chris Stein, a heart-wrenching bankruptcy and Blondie’s break up as a band, to her multifaceted acting career, a stunning solo career and the triumphant return of the band, FACE IT is a cinematic story of a woman who made her own path, and set the standard for a generation of artists who followed in her footsteps.
From an irreverent Lower East Side punk goddess to a bona fide international ambassador of New York cool, Debbie Harry will forever be synonymous with that punk spirit that lives somewhere in all of us.