Tiffany Renee Darwish (born October 2, 1971), known mononymously as Tiffany, is an American pop singer. Her 1987 cover of the Tommy James and the Shondells song "I Think We're Alone Now" spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and was released as the second single from her debut studio album, Tiffany.
Her singles "Could've Been" and "I Saw Him Standing There", a cover version of the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" were soon released. The former claimed the No. 1 position on the Billboard Hot 100. Thanks to an original mall tour, "The Beautiful You: Celebrating The Good Life Shopping Mall Tour '87", Tiffany found commercial success; and both her singles and the album peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200 charts, respectively.
Tiffany's second studio album, Hold an Old Friend's Hand, featured the Top 10 single "All This Time" and charted on the Billboard 200 in 1988. It achieved platinum status, although it did not replicate the success of her debut album. Two additional releases from Tiffany, New Inside (1990) and the Asia-exclusive Dreams Never Die (1993), both failed to rekindle significant interest. She returned in 2000 with her first studio album in six years, The Color of Silence. Although the album received some minor critical success, it also failed to achieve any significant standing. Since 2000, Tiffany has recorded five additional studio albums, as well as two albums of 1980s cover songs, and she continues to tour.
Outside of music, Tiffany posed nude in Playboy and has guest-starred on several reality television shows, including Celebrity Fit Club, Australia's version of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! and Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling, and has acted in a handful of horror and science fiction films, including Necrosis (2009), Mega Piranha (2010), and Mega Python vs. Gatoroid (2011).
Tiffany Renee Darwish was born on October 2, 1971 in Norwalk, California, which is east of Los Angeles, to Janie Wilson and James Robert Darwish, who divorced when she was 14 months old.
Regarding her background, Tiffany said, "Most of my family is from Dearborn. They're from Lebanon. So, I'm Lebanese. A little village. Because of Ford, everybody kind of moved here. Big Dearborn community... all my family." She is of Lebanese descent on her father's side and German descent on her mother's side.
Tiffany began singing at age four when she learned the words to the Tanya Tucker song "Delta Dawn". After her parents' divorce, she lived with her father and went to Norwalk High School in Norwalk as a freshman and sophomore. Then she attended Norwalk's Leffingwell Christian High School.
In 1981, Tiffany debuted with country music singer Jack Reeves at a country and western venue, Narods, in Chino, California. She passed a hat among the crowd afterwards, and collected $235 in what were her first career earnings. When Tiffany was singing at the Palomino Club, she was discovered by Hoyt Axton and his mother Mae Axton. Mae took her to sing in Nashville, Tennessee, where she performed on WSMV's The Ralph Emery Show, singing Juice Newton's "Queen of Hearts" and Tammy Wynette's "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad".
In 1984, Tiffany signed a recording contract with George Tobin after he heard her sing on a demo tape. In 1985, she appeared on Star Search with Ed McMahon, where she finished in second place overall. In 1986, she signed a contract that gave Tobin total control over her career, recorded her debut studio album and was signed to an MCA contract. The album, Tiffany, was released in 1987, but the first single she released from it, "Danny", failed to chart. Following the failure of "Danny", Tobin sent Tiffany on a nationwide tour of shopping malls, The Beautiful You: Celebrating the Good Life Shopping Mall Tour '87. The tour began at the Bergen Mall in Paramus, New Jersey. Her second single, a cover of Tommy James and the Shondells' hit, "I Think We're Alone Now", became a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 list. It remains her biggest hit.
Tiffany's ballad "Could've Been" also peaked at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard charts, in February 1988. Tiffany's modified version of the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There", retitled "I Saw Him Standing There", peaked at the No. 7 position on the Hot 100. "Feelings of Forever" also had chart success. Tiffany set a record for the youngest female artist to top the Billboard charts with a debut album. Later that year, she toured, with boy band New Kids on the Block as her opening act.
In 1988, at the peak of her popularity, Tiffany was embroiled in a conflict in which Tobin fought her mother and stepfather over control of her career and earnings. This led to a court fight in which Tiffany tried to have herself declared an emancipated minor. This was rejected by the court, but the judge did allow her to move out of her mother's home, and her grandmother (who sided with Tiffany during the trial) became her temporary guardian. In late 1988, Tiffany released her second studio album, Hold an Old Friend's Hand, which was less successful than her debut. Although it did not include any number-one hits, the song "All This Time" made the top 10.
Shortly after turning eighteen, Tiffany left Tobin's management and signed with Dick Scott and Kim Glover, who managed New Kids on the Block, by then a successful boy band.
Tiffany's career suffered as musical tastes changed in the early 1990s, moving away from dance-pop and towards harder-edged rock and rap. Tiffany's popularity, however, remained strong in Asia, especially Hong Kong and Southeast Asia; in Hong Kong, her ballads received cover versions in Cantonese from Cantopop artists. Her third studio album, the urban-influenced New Inside (1990), received mixed reviews from music critics, and failed to chart, despite several TV appearances to promote it, including on the fantasy sitcom Out of This World. In 1991, Tiffany participated in the recording of the song "Voices That Care", which peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100.
During a brief early 1990s comeback attempt, Tiffany reunited with Tobin on the album Dreams Never Die (1993), which spawned the singles "If Love is Blind" and "Can't You See". The album, mostly containing ballads, was released in Asian markets and was accompanied by a six-week tour of clubs, shopping malls and radio stations in Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia; a US release was planned, but it never materialized. She headlined her own show at the Las Vegas Hilton in the summer of 1993, before breaking with Tobin once again.
In 1995, Tiffany moved to Nashville to develop her career as a songwriter, and to attempt a return as a country music artist. In 1998, she appeared on the U2 tribute album We Will Follow: A Tribute to U2 in a collaboration with Canadian industrial act Front Line Assembly performing "New Year's Day".
In 2000, Tiffany released her fifth studio album, The Color of Silence, which received favorable reviews. Billboard described it as "one of the best pop albums of the year" and the year's "biggest surprise". Her College Promotional Tour broke attendance records at most tour stops.
Tiffany posed nude for the April 2002 issue of Playboy. Tiffany stated in interviews that she explained to her nine-year-old son that it was no different from posing in Vogue or Elle, except that it showed more. She added years later that while she had no regrets about posing in Playboy, some of her family members disapproved because of how young her son was at the time.
On April 2, 2005, Tiffany was featured on the British TV show Hit Me, Baby, One More Time, performing the Girls Aloud song "Love Machine" and securing a place in the show's finale. She also appeared on the US version of the show on June 2, 2005, losing to hip hop group Arrested Development. Tiffany released her sixth studio album Dust Off and Dance on CD Baby in May 2005, followed later as a digital release on iTunes. It was dedicated to her new husband, but recorded as a thank you to her fans (particularly her gay and European fanbase) for reminding her about the fun to be had with her career. The album consisted of Eurodance and Hi-NRG style songs. Singles from Dust Off and Dance, included "Ride It", "Fly", "Be with U Tonite", "Na Na Na", and "Artificial Girlfriend".