DEBBIE HARRY

Debbie Harry é unha cantante, compositora e actriz que vendeu millóns de álbums por todo o mundo con Blondie, e foi inducida no Rock and Roll Hall of Fame en 2006. Actuou en máis de 30 papeis en películas e na televisión. Contribuíu con moitas organizacións benéficas ambientais ao longo dos anos, como Riverkeeper, que se dedica a limpar o Hudson, e tamén se comprometeu coa causa de salvar ás especies polinizadoras. Ademais colaborou con organizacións benéficas que loitan para erradicar enfermidades coma a SIDA e o cancro, e escolas de música para nenos. Tamén está comprometida coa promoción da comunidade LGBTQIA+ e cos dereitos humanos.

Debbie naceu o 1 de xullo de 1945 en Miami, Florida. Foi adoptada aos tres meses por unha parella sen fillos e criada en Hawthorne, un pobo pequeno en Nova Jersey. Os seus pais contáronlle que a adoptaran aos catro anos, o que lle fixo sentir especial, pero tamén lle causou un profundo medo ao abandono. 

Vivía coa súa familia nunha casa para traballadores migrantes ao lado dun parque. De pequena era unha nena inqueda e curiosa, que xogaba a xogos “masculinos”, e pasaba moito tempo soñando esperta e imaxinando cousas no bosque próximo á súa casa co seu can. O feito de ser adoptada fixo que tivera unha mente aberta e aventureira. Aínda que os seus pais facían o que podían por ela, sentíase diferente, e un tanto incómoda na súa casa de adopción. Sempre estaba intentando encaixar. A súa nai adoptiva era unha muller convencional que quería que ao rematar de estudar atopara a un home, sentara cabeza e formara unha familia. Pero Debbie era un espírito libre e rebelde, e loitou dende sempre por ser quen quería ser.

Os seus pais ían regularmente á igrexa e Debbie empezou a cantar no coro. Tamén participou nalgunhas obras de teatro do colexio. Era moi tímida e non lle gustaba moito ir á escola, pero refuxiábase nos libros e devecía por aprender. Destacaba pola súa beleza e tivo que soportar a varios homes que andaban polos arredores molestando ás nenas. Habitualmente a súa familia non saía do pobo, e ela estaba desexando viaxar. Xa por aquel entón sabía que quería ser algún tipo de artista ou bohemia. Foi unha adolescente enfadada. A súa nai burlábase dos artistas, e iso molestábaa e poñíaa aínda máis nerviosa. A súa nai vestíaa de xeito conservador, e ela quería vestir coma os beatniks. Empezou a facer as súas propias roupas; aos catorce anos, fixándose en Marilyn Monroe, coa que se identificaba, quixo tinguir o pelo de rubio platino. Tiña moitos noivos nun pobo no que había moita represión, e onde se agardaba que unha rapaza buscara noivo e formara unha familia. 

Ela estaba desesperada por marchar a Nova York, para participar na vida cultural, e ser unha artista.

Cando rematou a secundaria na Hawthorne High School en 1963, ela quería estudar na Rhode Island School Of Design. Pero os seus pais non tiñan presuposto, así que estudou no Centenary College en Hackettstown (Nova Jersey), graduándose cun título de Grado Asociado en Artes en 1965. 

A finais dos sesenta conseguiu un traballo en Nova York e mudouse alí. Tivo varios empregos: dependenta, modelo, secretaria na oficina da BBC Radio, camareira en Max's Kansas City (un dos locais onde tocaban as bandas punk), bailarina go-go nunha discoteca de Union City (Nova Jersey), Conexiña na Mansión Playboy... Debbie participou activamente na escena artística de Nova York. Acudía a moitos concertos, festas e eventos culturais alternativos e coñeceu a todo tipo de persoas, moitas delas vinculadas á arte. Por aquel entón era moi barato alugar unha vivenda e moitos artistas vivían en lofts e apartamentos da cidade.

Nova York era unha cidade deprimida economicamente, e perigosa, pois había moita violencia na rúa. A Debbie acosárona en varias ocasións e tamén houbo momentos nos que estivo en perigo de morte: sufriu un accidente conducindo o seu coche, incendios, fugas de gas, agresións na rúa, e incluso un intento de secuestro por parte de alguén que ela pensa que era o asasino Ted Bundy. Pero Debbie quería vivir unha vida artística e formar parte da escena creativa, en lugar de quedar no seu pobo, onde tería unha vida máis convencional. Estes primeiros anos foron fundamentais para configurar a súa identidade artística. Vivir alí expúxoa a unha serie de influencias creativas que xogarían un papel fundamental na súa traxectoria.

A finais dos sesenta uniuse á banda de folk rock The Wind In The Willows como corista. En 1973 incorporouse aos Stilettos, banda á que máis tarde se uniu o guitarrista Chris Stein, quen se convertería no seu noivo. Durante este tempo, a Debbie violárona unha noite, cando ambos entraban no apartamento que compartían. O violador tamén roubou todas as guitarras que había no piso.

En 1974 deixaron aos Stilettos, e xunto con outros ex-compañeiros formaron outra banda, Angel And The Snake, á que máis tarde lle chamaron Blondie. O nome derivaba dos comentarios que lle facían os camioneiros a Debbie cando pasaban polo seu lado: “Hey, louriña!”

Blondie aparecía habitualmente no mítico club de Hilly Kristal CBGB, xunto a bandas como Television, Talking Heads, Patti Smith Group e The Ramones. Alí traballaron a súa imaxe, desenvolveron o seu estilo e medraron como banda. O club foi o epicentro dunha escena alternativa que logo tería unha influencia mundial. Tiveron a sorte de ter ese espazo para poder actuar nunha cidade na que todo estaba en quebra e ninguén tiña cartos. A actitude punk de facer as cousas un mesmo de xeito autosuficiente era unha necesidade, non un estilo que logo as industrias converterían en mercadoría.

Debbie era unha das poucas mulleres que había na música nese momento, e o seu traballo non era recoñecido nin se tomaba en serio, pero coa súa voz e o seu estilo atrevido enseguida gañou ao público.

A banda publicou o seu primeiro álbum, Blondie, en 1976. Ademais de revelarse coma unha grande intérprete, Debbie tamén destacaba como compositora, e seis das cancións do álbum foron escritas en colaboración con ela. Así, converteuse nunha figura icónica na escena punk. Nos tres anos seguintes a banda publicou outros tres álbums: Plastic Letters, Parallel Lines e Eat To The Beat. Formaban parte da cultura alternativa e foron pioneiros da escena. Facían unha mestura de estilos musicais, incorporando elementos da música disco, pop, reggae, funk e o hip hop temperán. Tiveron moito éxito dende os seus inicios no Reino Unido e en Australia, pero en Estados Unidos o recoñecemento chegoulles co seu terceiro álbum, Parallel Lines, en 1978.

O primeiro tour de verdade que fixeron foi con David Bowie e Iggy Pop, por América do Norte. Bowie foi quen lles deu a oportunidade de comezar no mundo real en 1977.

Debbie escapou dun entorno restritivo no que se esperaba que adoptara os roles tradicionais de xénero. Por aquel entón, instruíase ás nenas para que buscaran a un home forte que as mantivera e as protexera. Pero ela era demasiado independente, buscaba aventuras e novas experiencias, e precisaba seguir aprendendo. Supoñíase que unha muller non debía ser intelixente, nin ter iniciativa nin forza. En canto ao rock do momento, esperábase que as mulleres foran pura fachada, e que non fixeran máis ca poñerse guapas e cantar cancións baleiras. Debbie quería expresar a súa sexualidade, pero nos seus termos; non coma obxecto da mirada masculina. O risco era que moita xente se fixaba máis no seu aspecto que na música. Así que pronto aprendeu que era moi importante manter o sentido do humor.

No escenario, interpretaba algo parecido a unha personaxe de cómic de fantasía, aínda que se inspiraba principalmente en Marilyn Monroe e na súa aparencia luminescente. Como Marilyn era tan sexy, moitas mulleres nos anos cincuenta  menosprezábana, coma se fora unha pendanga. E como se facía publicidade dela coma un ídolo sexual, non a tomaban en serio como actriz. En realidade, Marilyn, que era moi intelixente, interpretaba a unha personaxe, unha rubia parva con voz de nena e corpo de muller. A personaxe de Debbie en Blondie era unha homenaxe visual a Marilyn, pero tamén unha declaración acerca do dobre estándar co que se xulgaba ás mulleres.

A súa personaxe era un tanto andróxina, pois cantaba cancións escritas dende o punto de vista dun home, pero facíao dun xeito neutral en canto ao xénero. Moitas amigas drag queens dicíanlle que era unha drag queen. Era unha muller que xogaba coa idea que teñen os homes sobre as mulleres. A mediados dos setenta, o entorno do rock era moi masculino, e ser unha muller artística e asertiva que non obstante se vestía de muller era moi transgresor. Era moi inusual que unha muller moi feminina liderara unha banda de machos nun ambiente moi machista. Dicía cousas que as cantantes femininas non dicían entón, pois non se amosaba submisa, e tiña un lado escuro, provocativo e agresivo.

Blondie e o resto de artistas que tocaban no CBGB’s eran subversivos, bohemios e artistas de performance vangardistas. Isto combinado coa súa actitude de facer as cousas eles mesmos, e o rock da rúa de Nova York, deu lugar ao punk, antes de que ninguén lles chamara “punks”. Todos eles criticaban e satirizaban a hipocrisía da sociedade na que vivían.

A imaxe de Debbie desenvolveuse a partir de mercar roupa de segunda man, ou atopando cousas que a xente tiraba, probando e combinando. Existían nunha burbulla illada de depresión económica en Nova York, e tiñan que ser moi fortes artisticamente. Pensaban soamente en sobrevivir. Eran persistentes e seguiron traballando, incluso cando todas as bandas da escena conseguiron un contrato, menos eles. Pero melloraron, conseguiron seguidores, e finalmente lográrono.

Pero todo era complicado. A industria estaba empeñada en reducila a un obxecto. Unha compañía de discos prometeulles que farían un póster promocional con todos os membros da banda, pero logo pegaron pósters de Debbie en Times Square, nos que usaron unha imaxe súa cunha blusa transparente sen o seu consentimento. Debbie estaba furiosa, pero non por que se lle viran as mamilas. Outras imaxes súas máis reveladoras apareceran nas revistas punk alternativas, pero estas eran irónicas e divertidas. Pero neste caso tratábase dalgún xefe con traxe explotando a súa sexualidade.

Unha compañía de discos tamén impediu que actuara en Blade Runner, porque canto máis éxito tiñan, menos querían que fixeran cousas fóra da banda, e en especial ela. De novo, pensaban que desenvolveran un mercado para Blondie e querían convertelos nun produto.

Debbie coñeceu a Andy Warhol, a quen admiraba moito, cando traballaba de camareira en Max. Coma el, sentía a influencia de Marcel Duchamp e un parentesco co Dadá e o Popismo. A súa arte xogaba coas convencións do comercio. Era moi serio co seu traballo, pero abordábao con sentido do humor. Para a súa sorpresa, empezou a convidala a ela e mais a Chris ás súas festas, e fixéronse amigos. Warhol tamén retratou a Debbie, e aínda conserva a súa obra.

Con Autoamerican, Blondie empezaron a desmarcarse do tipo de música que fixeran ata entón, explorando moitos outros xéneros e combinando funk, rock, pop, jazz, blues e incluso o rap dun xeito moi innovador. Durante ese tempo, coñeceron a artistas como Fav Five Freddy e Jean-Michel Basquiat.

A banda quería fuxir da separación por categorías da música popular que se facía para vender máis. Evitaban volverse previsibles, e querían cruzar fronteiras e unir á xente; buscaban a diversidade musical, cultural e racial. Bebían de estilos musicais diferentes: rap, reggae, rock, pop, Broadway, disco, ou jazz. Chris e ela querían facer unha colaboración auténtica entre unha banda negra e unha banda branca, e conseguírono co álbum de debut en solitario de Debbie, KooKoo (1981), producido por Nile Rodgers e Bernard Edwards de Chic, algo que non tiña precedentes entón e que tivo unha clara influencia na música posterior que non debería pasarse por alto.

Debbie Harry tamén ten unha traxectoria destacada como actriz no teatro, en películas independentes e series de TV. Algúns exemplos son Downtown 81 (1981), Union City (1980), Videodrome (1983),  Hairspray (1988), e as películas de Isabel Coixet  Mi Vida Sin Mí  (2003) e Elegy (2008).

Para Debbie, o mellor de Blondie foron os seus comezos estimulantes nos que eran artistas loitando para saír adiante, pioneiros abrindo camiño. Cando lles chegou o éxito, sentiuse decepcionada pola perda de liberdade que implicou, e a presión por convertelos nun produto comercial.

A banda funcionaba dun xeito democrático, pero non tiñan un manager que soubera mediar. Por iso entraron nunha dinámica na que empezaron a competir en lugar de actuar unidos. E tamén tiñan a presión externa por facer álbums para vender moito. Así foi como a banda se separou despois do lanzamento do seu sexto álbum de estudo, The Hunter, en 1982.

Durante o tour que seguiu ao álbum, Chris contraeu unha rara enfermidade autoinmune, o pénfigo. Usaron drogas durante ese tour, porque era o único xeito que tiñan de xestionar o estrés ou o cansazo. Naquel momento, descoñecíanse os efectos nocivos das drogas, e na industria musical usábanse de xeito liberal e frecuente. Ao final do tour, Chris estaba moi enfermo e tivo que permanecer no hospital durante tres meses. Debbie coidaba del, e continuaron empregando as drogas para facer fronte a iso. Debbie sentíase culpable, porque pensaba que o feito de que Chris a tivera que protexer sempre nun ambiente perigoso engadira moito estrés ao que xa implicaba liderar á banda.

Cando saíu do hospital, Chris estaba moi débil e tardou dous anos en recuperarse. Perderan a banda, o contrato discográfico, e estaban a punto de perder a súa casa. A pesar de que venderan máis de 40 millóns de discos, e traballaran sen parar durante sete anos, arruináronse porque tiñan contratos terribles, e a xente á que lle pagaban para coidar deles preocupárase máis polo seu propio beneficio. Tiveron problemas enormes cos impostos. Sen que o souberan, o seu contable deixou de pagar impostos durante os dous anos nos que gañaron máis, e durante ese tempo convenceunos de mercar unha casa enorme. O seu ex manager Peter Leeds tampouco os protexeu diso, pero posteriormente reaparecería sempre que tiña ocasión de ser testemuña de calquera perda ou ameaza que xurdía na vida de Debbie.

Despois diso, Debbie actuou nunha comedia musical que mesturaba unha historia de vinganza dunha rapaza con cancións e loita libre. Tamén continuou gravando discos en solitario. Nos anos oitenta, había moitas máis mulleres no rock que cando ela empezou. Foi un desafío ter que reinventarse despois de Blondie, algo que a ela por suposto lle encantou.

Chris e mais ela separáronse o mesmo día que morreu Andy Warhol, en febreiro de 1987. Non obstante, nunca deixou de querelo, nin de traballar con el, nin de preocuparse por el.

En principio, Debbie non buscou aos seus pais biolóxicos para non desgustar aos seus pais mentres estes vivían. Pero sempre quixo saber quen eran, e a finais dos anos oitenta procurounos. A súa nai era de orixe escocesa-irlandesa, e a familia materna era unha familia musical. O seu pai era de orixe francesa, e a familia paterna tamén era artística e musical. El estaba casado, e a avoa materna persuadiu á súa nai para que a dera en adopción. Finalmente conseguiu localizar á súa nai, unha pianista de concerto, que non quixo establecer unha relación con ela; e tamén a outros familiares biolóxicos, que a culparon de rachar a súa familia. O seu pai xa morrera con 74 anos.

Debbie continuou coa súa traxectoria en solitario, con varios proxectos musicais propios que lle permitiron explorar diferentes xéneros e estilos. Entre moitos proxectos, publicou Rockbird (1986), Def, Dumb & Blonde (1989), Debravation (1993) e Necessary Evil (2007), explorando unha gran variedade de xéneros e demostrando a súa versatilidade como artista. Tamén se uniu ao conxunto de jazz de vangarda The Jazz Passengers en 1994. Tamén continuou traballando como actriz.

Anos despois de sobrevivir ao éxito masivo e mundial de Blondie, á enfermidade, ás drogas e á ruína financeira, Chris chamou a Debbie en 1996 para reunir á banda, e ela pensou que estaba tolo. Sobre tendo en conta a cantidade de xente que coñecían daquela escena que morrera. Pero el convenceuna, e empezaron a chamar aos membros orixinais. Decidiron que o baixista Nigel Harrison e o guitarrista Frank Infante non participarían na reunión, e estes denunciáronos sen éxito para tentar impedir que usaran o nome de Blondie, e por ingresos futuros potenciais. Finalmente Blondie reuniuse con Debbie, Leigh Foxx, Paul Carbonara, Chris Stein, Clem Burke, e Jimmy Destri.

Despois de padecer durante os seus comezos a uns cantos managers desinteresados e despreocupados, ou que desfrutaban cando os vían en desequilibrio porque gañaban máis control, atoparon a Allen Kovac, un manager que entendía as presións que existen na industria da música e como fracturan as relacións das persoas.

Pero de novo Debbie estaba nun club de homes. A súa relación con Chris, un home intelixente e flexible, axudábaa, pero había outros membros que lle faltaban ao respecto e que a miraban coma un obxecto. Non obstante, a veces conseguía que ese magnetismo traballara a favor dela. En ocasións tamén lle custaba levar adiante as súas ideas, pero non se trataba só de machismo, porque se tomaban as decisións por maioría.

Dende entón, a banda publicou outros cinco álbums: No Exit (1999) marcado polo éxito do sinxelo Maria, que os devolveu ás listas de éxitos; The Curse of Blondie (2003), Panic of Girls (2011), Ghosts of Download (2014) e Pollinator (2017), álbums que amosaron a súa evolución musical con influencias electrónicas e colaboracións con artistas contemporáneos. En 2006 ingresaron no Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

En 2019, Blondie deu dous concertos na Habana como parte dun intercambio cultural e organizou actividades con músicos e artistas cubanos, unha experiencia sobre a que se gravou o curto documental Blondie: Vivir en La Habana, de Rob Roth, e a banda lanzou o EP Vivir en La Habana coa banda sonora.

Durante todo este tempo, continuaron facendo xiras internacionais constantes e manténdose vixentes no panorama musical. En 2022 publicaron Against the Odds, unha colección de material inédito e remasterizado dos seus primeiros anos.

O 6 de abril de 2025, Clem Burke, o batería da banda, faleceu tras unha longa enfermidade.

Blondie seguen activos, con Debbie e o seu compañeiro creativo de toda a vida Chris á fronte. En 2024 revelaron que Blondie lanzará un novo álbum en 2025.

Texto publicado orixinalmente: 19/03/2025

Texto actualizado: 01/07/2025

Debbie Harry is a singer, songwriter, and actress who has sold millions of albums worldwide with Blondie, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. She has appeared in over 30 film and television roles. She has contributed to many environmental charities over the years, such as Riverkeeper, which cleans up the Hudson River, and is also committed to saving pollinator species. She has also collaborated with charities that fight to eradicate diseases such as AIDS and cancer, and music schools for children. She is also committed to promoting the LGBTQIA+ community and human rights.

Debbie was born on July 1, 1945, in Miami, Florida. She was adopted at three months old by a childless couple and raised in Hawthorne, a small town in New Jersey. Her parents told her that they had adopted her when she was four, which made her feel special, but also caused her a deep fear of abandonment.

She lived with her family in a migrant worker house next to a park. As a child, she was a restless and curious girl, playing “boyish” games, and spent a lot of time daydreaming and imagining things in the woods near her home with her dog. Being adopted gave her an open and adventurous mind. Although her parents did what they could for her, she felt different, and a bit uncomfortable in her adopted home. She was always trying to fit in. Her adoptive mother was a conventional woman who wanted her to find a man after she finished school, settle down, and start a family. But Debbie was a free spirit and a rebel, and she always fought to be who she wanted to be.

Her parents went to church regularly and Debbie began singing in the choir. She also participated in some school plays. She was very shy and did not like going to school very much, but she took refuge in books and was eager to learn. She stood out for her beauty and had to put up with several men who walked around the neighborhood harassing girls. Her family usually did not leave the village, and she was eager to travel. Even at that time she knew that she wanted to be some kind of artist or bohemian. She was an angry teenager. Her mother made fun of artists, and this bothered her and made her even more nervous. Her mother dressed her conservatively, and she wanted to dress like the beatniks. She began to make her own clothes; at the age of fourteen, looking at Marilyn Monroe, with whom she identified, she wanted to dye her hair platinum blonde. She had many boyfriends in a town where there was a lot of repression, and where a girl was expected to find a boyfriend and start a family.

She was desperate to go to New York, to participate in the cultural life, and to be an artist.

When she graduated from Hawthorne High School in 1963, she wanted to study at the Rhode Island School Of Design. But her parents didn't have the budget, so she studied at Centenary College in Hackettstown, New Jersey, graduating with an Associate of Arts degree in 1965.

In the late 1960s she got a job in New York and moved there. She had several jobs: a shop assistant, a model, a secretary in the BBC Radio office, a waitress at Max's Kansas City (one of the places where punk bands played), a go-go dancer in a nightclub in Union City (New Jersey), a bunny at the Playboy Mansion... Debbie was actively involved in the New York art scene. She went to many concerts, parties and alternative cultural events and met all kinds of people, many of them linked to art. At that time, it was very cheap to rent a house and many artists lived in lofts and apartments in the city.

New York was an economically depressed city, and dangerous, as there was a lot of violence on the streets. Debbie was harassed on several occasions and there were also times when she was in danger of death: she suffered an accident while driving her car, fires, gas leaks, assaults on the street, and even an attempted kidnapping by someone she thinks was the murderer Ted Bundy. But Debbie wanted to live an artistic life and be part of the creative scene, rather than staying in her hometown, where she would have a more conventional life. These early years were fundamental in shaping her artistic identity. Living there exposed her to a series of creative influences that would play a fundamental role in her career.

In the late sixties she joined the folk rock band The Wind In The Willows as a backing vocalist. In 1973 she joined the Stilettos, a band that guitarist Chris Stein later joined, who would become her boyfriend. During this time, Debbie was raped one night, when they both entered the apartment they shared. The rapist also stole all the guitars in the apartment.

In 1974 they left the Stilettos, and together with other former bandmates they formed another band, Angel And The Snake, which they later called Blondie. The name came from the comments that truck drivers would make to Debbie when they passed her: “Hey, blondie!”

Blondie regularly appeared at the legendary Hilly Kristal club CBGB, alongside bands such as Television, Talking Heads, Patti Smith Group and The Ramones. There they worked on their image, developed their style and grew as a band. The club was the epicenter of an alternative scene that would later have a global influence. They were lucky to have that space to be able to perform in a city where everything was bankrupt and no one had money. The punk attitude of do it yourself in a self-sufficient way was a necessity, not a style that industries would later turn into a commodity.

Debbie was one of the few women in music at the time, and her work was not recognized or taken seriously, but with her voice and bold style she quickly won over the public.

The band released their first album, Blondie, in 1976. In addition to proving herself as a great performer, Debbie also stood out as a songwriter, and six of the songs on the album were written in collaboration with her. Thus, she became an iconic figure in the punk scene. In the following three years, the band released three more albums: Plastic Letters, Parallel Lines and Eat To The Beat. They were part of the alternative culture and were pioneers of the scene. Blondie made a mixture of musical styles, incorporating elements of disco, pop, reggae, funk and early hip hop. They had great success from their beginnings in the United Kingdom and Australia, but in the United States, recognition came to them with their third album, Parallel Lines, in 1978.

Their first real tour was with David Bowie and Iggy Pop, in North America. It was Bowie who gave them their chance to start in the real world in 1977.

Debbie escaped a restrictive environment in which she was expected to adopt traditional gender roles. At that time, girls were instructed to look for a strong man to support and protect them. But she was too independent, looking for adventures and new experiences, and needed to keep learning. A woman was not supposed to be intelligent, or have initiative or strength. In rock music of the moment, women were expected to be pure facades, and to do nothing more than dress up and sing empty songs. Debbie wanted to express her sexuality, but on her own terms; not as an object of the male gaze. The risk was that many people would focus more on her appearance than on her music. So she quickly learned that it was very important to maintain a sense of humor.

On stage, she played something like a fantasy comic book character, although she was mainly inspired by Marilyn Monroe and her luminescent appearance. Because Marilyn was so sexy, many women in the 1950s looked down on her, as if she were a slut. And because she was advertised as a sex idol, she was not taken seriously as an actress. In reality, Marilyn, who was very intelligent, played a character, a dumb blonde with a girl's voice and a woman's body. Debbie's character in Blondie was a visual homage to Marilyn, but also a statement about the double standard by which women were judged.

Her character was somewhat androgynous, as she sang songs written from a man's point of view, but she did it in a gender-neutral way. Many of her drag queen friends told her that she was a drag queen. She was a woman who played with the idea that men have about women. In the mid-seventies, the rock scene was very masculine, and being an artistic and assertive woman who nevertheless dressed as a woman was very transgressive. It was very unusual for a very feminine woman to lead a band of males in a very macho environment. She said things that female singers did not say at the time, because she did not show submissiveness, and she had a dark, provocative and aggressive side. 

Blondie and the rest of the artists who played at CBGB's were subversive, bohemian and avant-garde performance artists. This combined with their attitude of do it yourself, and the rock of the streets of New York, gave rise to punk, before anyone called them "punks". They all criticized and satirized the hypocrisy of the society they lived in.

Debbie's image developed from buying second-hand clothes, or finding things that people were throwing away, trying them on and mixing them together. They existed in an isolated bubble of economic depression in New York, and they had to be very strong artistically. They only thought about surviving. They were persistent and kept working, even when every other band in the scene got a contract except them. But they improved, they got a following, and eventually they made it.

But everything was complicated. The industry was bent on reducing her to an object. A record company promised them that they would make a promotional poster with all the band members, but then they put up posters of Debbie in Times Square, in which they used a picture of her in a see-through blouse without her consent. Debbie was furious, but not because her nipples were visible. Other more revealing pictures of her had appeared in alternative punk magazines, but these were ironic and funny. But in this case it was some boss in a suit exploiting her sexuality.

A record company also prevented her from acting in Blade Runner, because the more successful they were, the less they wanted her to do things outside the band, and especially her. Again, they thought they had developed a market for Blondie and wanted to turn them into a product.

Debbie met Andy Warhol, whom she greatly admired, when she worked as a waitress at Max. Like him, she felt the influence of Marcel Duchamp and a kinship with Dada and Popism. His art played with the conventions of the trade. He was very serious about his work, but he approached it with a sense of humor. To her surprise, he began inviting her and Chris to his parties, and they became friends. Warhol also painted Debbie, and she still has his artwork.

With Autoamerican, Blondie began to move away from the type of music they had made up until then, exploring many other genres and combining funk, rock, pop, jazz, blues and even rap in a very innovative way. During this time, they met artists such as Fav Five Freddy and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

The band wanted to escape the categorization of popular music that was done to sell more. They avoided becoming predictable, and wanted to cross borders and unite people; they sought musical, cultural and racial diversity. They drank from different musical styles: rap, reggae, rock, pop, Broadway, disco, or jazz. Chris and Debbie wanted to make an authentic collaboration between a black band and a white band, and they achieved it with Debbie's solo debut album, KooKoo (1981), produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of Chic, something that was unprecedented at the time and that had a clear influence on later music that should not be overlooked.

Debbie Harry also has a distinguished career as an actress in theater, independent films and TV series. Some examples are Downtown 81 (1981), Union City (1980), Videodrome (1983), Hairspray (1988), and Isabel Coixet's films Mi Vida Sin Mí (2003) and Elegy (2008).

For Debbie, the best thing about Blondie was their exciting beginnings as struggling artists, pioneers blazing a trail. When success came, she was disappointed by the loss of freedom it entailed, and the pressure to turn them into a commercial product.

The band operated democratically, but they didn't have a manager who knew how to mediate. That's why they got into a dynamic where they started competing instead of acting together. And there was also the external pressure to make albums that would sell a lot. That's how the band broke up after the release of their sixth studio album, The Hunter, in 1982.

During the tour that followed the album, Chris contracted a rare autoimmune disease, pemphigus. They used drugs during the tour, as it was the only way they had to deal with stress or fatigue. At the time, the harmful effects of drugs were unknown, and they were used liberally and frequently in the music industry. By the end of the tour, Chris was very ill and had to stay in the hospital for three months. Debbie took care of him, and they continued to use drugs to cope. Debbie felt guilty, because she thought that the fact that Chris had always had to protect her in a dangerous environment had added a lot of stress to the already stressful situation of leading the band. 

When Chris was released from the hospital, he was very weak and it took two years to recover. They had lost the band, their record deal, and they were about to lose their house. Despite selling over 40 million records, and working non-stop for seven years, they went bankrupt because they had terrible contracts, and the people they were paid to look after them were more concerned with their own profit. They had huge tax problems. Unbeknownst to them, their accountant had stopped paying taxes during the two years they earned the most, and during that time he convinced them to buy a huge house. Their former manager Peter Leeds did not protect them from this either, but would later reappear whenever he had the opportunity to witness any loss or threat that arose in Debbie's life. 

After that, Debbie starred in a musical comedy that mixed a girl's revenge story with songs and wrestling. She also continued to record solo albums. In the eighties, there were many more women in rock than when she started. It was a challenge to reinvent herself after Blondie, which she of course loved.

She and Chris separated on the same day Andy Warhol died, in February 1987. However, she never stopped loving him, working with him, or caring for him.

Debbie initially did not look for her biological parents so as not to upset her parents while they were alive. But she always wanted to know who they were, and in the late 1980s she did. Her mother was of Scots-Irish descent, and her maternal family was a musical family. Her father was of French descent, and her paternal family was also artistic and musical. He was married, and her maternal grandmother persuaded her mother to give her up for adoption. She eventually managed to locate her mother, a concert pianist, who did not want to establish a relationship with her; as well as other biological relatives, who blamed her for breaking up their family. Her father had already died at the age of 74.

Debbie continued her solo career, with several of her own musical projects that allowed her to explore different genres and styles. Among many projects, she released Rockbird (1986), Def, Dumb & Blonde (1989), Debravation (1993) and Necessary Evil (2007), exploring a wide range of genres and demonstrating her versatility as an artist. She also joined the avant-garde jazz ensemble The Jazz Passengers in 1994. She also continued to work as an actress.

Years after surviving Blondie's massive worldwide success, illness, drugs and financial ruin, Chris called Debbie in 1996 to reunite the band, and she thought he was crazy. Especially considering how many people they knew from that scene had died. But he convinced her, and they began calling the original members. They decided that bassist Nigel Harrison and guitarist Frank Infante would not participate in the reunion, and they unsuccessfully sued them in an attempt to stop them from using the Blondie name, and for potential future income. Finally Blondie reunited with Debbie, Leigh Foxx, Paul Carbonara, Chris Stein, Clem Burke, and Jimmy Destri.

After suffering through a few managers who were disinterested and unconcerned during their early days, or who enjoyed seeing them unbalanced because they gained more control, they found Allen Kovac, a manager who understood the pressures that exist in the music industry and how they fracture people's relationships.

But again Debbie was in a men's club. Her relationship with Chris, an intelligent and flexible man, helped her, but there were other members who disrespected her and saw her as an object. However, sometimes she managed to make that magnetism work in her favor. She also had a hard time carrying out her ideas sometimes, but it was not just sexism, because decisions were made by the majority.

Since then, the band has released five more albums: No Exit (1999) marked by the success of the single Maria, which returned them to the charts; The Curse of Blondie (2003), Panic of Girls (2011), Ghosts of Download (2014) and Pollinator (2017), albums that showed their musical evolution with electronic influences and collaborations with contemporary artists. In 2006 they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In 2019, Blondie gave two concerts in La Habana as part of a cultural exchange and organized activities with Cuban musicians and artists, an experience that was recorded in the short documentary Blondie: Vivir en La Habana, by Rob Roth, and the band released the EP Vivir en La Habana with the soundtrack.

Throughout this time, they continued to tour internationally constantly and remain relevant in the music scene. In 2022 they released Against the Odds, a collection of previously unreleased and remastered material from their early years.

On April 6, 2025, Clem Burke, the band's drummer, died after a long illness.

Blondie are still active, with Debbie and her long-time creative partner Chris at the helm. In 2024, they revealed that Blondie would release a new album in 2025.

Text originally published: 19/03/2025

Updated text: 01/07/2025