Remember when you had to pick a side?
Debbie Gibson or Tiffany. Team Black Hat or Team Red Hair. The question was constantly plastered across Bop and Tiger Beat like it was the most important decision you'd ever make.
Nearly 40 years later, Debbie Gibson is still getting asked about it. And she's officially over it.
"It's a drag for both of us," she said recently on the Unfamous podcast.
@unfamousthepodcastGag: You love it. Drag: Not so much. #unfamous #behindthemusic #debbiegibson #musicinterview @TranterJustin @Debbie Gibson @Morgan
♬ I Think We're Alone Now - TiffanyAfter decades of politely explaining that no, she and Tiffany weren't actually feuding, Gibson finally just said what she's probably been thinking since 1987: Can we please move on? Like, seriously.
Because that supposed rivalry everyone loved so much? It never actually existed at all.
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Two Teenagers, Two Coasts, Zero Drama
Picture it's 1987. Big hair, bigger shoulder pads and MTV still playing actual music videos. It was the wild, wild west and it was the best of Gen X times. Suddenly, two teenage girls are everywhere on the radio at the exact same time.
Tiffany's covering, "I Think We're Alone Now" in shopping malls across America. Debbie's writing and producing her own songs, about to become the youngest female songwriter to hit number one with "Foolish Beat."
Both 16 and 17 years old. Both on every magazine cover that teenagers were buying.
Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd. on Getty Images
So naturally, everyone decided they must hate each other. They must be each other's competition because they are so similar. But, they weren't.
"We are so different," Gibson explained, and you can hear the exhaustion. She compared it to lumping Whitney Houston and Belinda Carlisle together just because they were the same age.
But back then? Nobody cared about different. They wanted drama and nothing inspires dramatic conspiracy theories more than two young ladies pitted against one another.
Here's what was actually happening: Two kids were too busy to even know each other.
Photo by Steve Snowden on Getty Images
"We really didn't know each other to be honest with you, as girlfriends," Tiffany told People in 2019. "She's East Coast, I was West Coast."
No FaceTime. No texting. No social media. Just two teenagers on opposite coasts, occasionally running into each other at "Top of the Pops" or some radio event.
"How are you doing? How are you holding up?" That's what they'd ask in those brief moments, according to Gibson's 2018 interview. Just two kids checking in.
"Who had time to not get along?" Gibson said. "We were both doing our own things."
Photo by Michael Tullberg on Getty Images
The rivalry? Completely made up.
Once they actually had time to hang out — when they made Mega Python vs. Gatoroid together in 2011 — they became real friends.
"We would go on each other's buses and just talk, have a cup of tea like girlfriends," Tiffany said in 2019.
They toured together. Stayed friends. The rivalry was always fiction.
"I always felt it was a bit like looking in the mirror," Gibson said, "because she and I were both the only two American female teenagers doing what we were doing at the level we were doing it."
Still Explaining in 2026
Here we are in 2026, and Gibson's still having to explain they aren't enemies. Still getting asked about a fight that never happened.
She's been setting the record straight for at least eight years. People keep asking anyway.
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Maybe that's why she sounds so tired calling it "a drag."
Two talented women built successful careers at the same time. They didn't need to be rivals for both to win. They never were.
Photo by Taylor Hill on Getty Images
"You can love us both now," Gibson said years ago. "There's no Bop magazine telling you you need to pick."
Turns out, there never should have been one in the first place.
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