Blondie turns 80: Happy Birthday to ‘punk Marilyn Monroe’

express.co.uk

By Josh White – 27th June 2025

SHE is the Atomic singer, rapper and film star who has thrilled audiences for six decades with her ice-cool demeanour and sultry vocals, having pioneered the sound that emerged from punk in 1970s New York and sold more than 40 million records.

And next week Debbie Harry turns 80, with her legendary New Wave group Blondie still going strong, despite the recent death of drummer Clem Burke aged 70. A new album and tour are expected later this year.

Raised in New Jersey by adoptive parents, Harry found herself in fortuitous proximity to the New York music scene, working as a waitress, go-go dancer and even a Playboy bunny before an apprenticeship in folk rock group, The Wind in the Willows.

Blondie was officially formed in 1974 by Harry and guitarist Chris Stein, her then boyfriend, the name originating from the catcalls of men in the audience commenting on her peroxide hairdo.

Veteran DJ “Whispering” Bob Harris tells Debbie Harry: The Fans’ Story – broadcast on BBC Sounds today and repeated on Radio 2 at midnight on Saturday: “There was this new band, Blondie, that people were talking about, and in particular, the lead singer, Deborah Harry… She was like a punk Marilyn Monroe, that’s the way I was thinking about her and the way she was being described in New York at the time.

“It was her, she was the focal point of the band. And of course the music was great, in particular with Heart of Glass – that record arrived right in the middle at the disco moment, and on the floor at Studio 54, it
fitted right in.

“We broadcast a wonderful concert with them which they performed at the Glasgow Apollo on New Year’s Eve, 1979… the place went absolutely wild. I mean, the atmosphere was incredible.”

Harris recalls going back to the band’s Glasgow hotel after the gig where, they “commandeered the bar and Deborah and Chris [Stein] and a couple of the other people from the band and other people who were in the bar just joined in, a massive great jam session… I seem to remember going up to bed at about 4am”.

Harris is just one of the music luminaries to have shared their memories of Blondie ahead of Harry’s 80th birthday on Tuesday.

Disco diva Sophie Ellis-Bextor recalls being “mesmerised” by Harry’s presence and her “beautiful”, “octave-spanning” voice – “It sounds kind of clean and pure and sultry and effortless” – and the joy at getting to meet her at an awards ceremony.

“She went through on the red carpet and there were all the photographers. They were going, ‘Debbie, Debbie’, calling her name. And I was looking at her like, ‘Wow, there’s Debbie Harry in the flesh.’

“And then I walked in just behind her and they started calling my name. And I was like, ‘Whoa, how’d it go from Debbie Harry to me? That’s crazy’. And I managed to say hello to her on that day. And she was really just so charismatic.”

On Harry’s enduring mystique, the Murder on the Dancefloor hitmaker explains: “A lot of people with pop music make it very smiley and friendly and try to focus on the relatable. But I feel that when she performed, she was quite still and quite sort of secure in her space and a little bit mysterious, and that made it all the more exciting, the juxtaposition.”

Born Angela Trimble in Miami, Harry was adopted at three months by Catherine and Richard Harry, shopkeepers from New Jersey. She later spoke of the “physical cloud left when I was parted from my [birth] mother”, and as an adult hired a private eye to track her down. But her birth mother, a concert pianist, declined the opportunity to get to know her biological daughter.

Happily, Harry thrived with her adopted parents and was voted “best looking” by peers when she graduated from high school in 1963.

Harry’s striking look, with high, angular cheekbones, was just as important to the group’s rapid success as their music, which across a series of albums touched on a gamut of influences from punk and 60s girl groups, to funk, reggae, disco and hip hop.

In fact, their 1980 single Rapture is famous as the first US No 1 to feature a rap, delivered by Harry herself, who went on to release critically lauded music under her own name from 1981.

Earlier this year, the singer reflected on getting older in an interview with the Times, saying of her adoptive mother that “she used to say in her head she was 25 and I’m the same”.

She cautioned: “But thinking about it all the time could be your downfall. And I don’t really want the same kind of life I did when I was younger. I’ve done that!

“That’s the beauty of ageing – you know what it’s about. You have it in your heart and soul and your memory bank…or does that sound like an excuse? Should I go out and party every night?”

Currently single, she also admitted that, never having married or had children, she remains open to dating if the right person came along. “I’m definitely not as adventurous as I was, but I’m still curious,” she added. Producer and Pop Idol judge Pete Waterman also shared his memories of Harry for the one-off BBC show, saying: “Looking back at the 1970s music scene was quite strange because it was in a transition. We’d gone through the Motown phase and the Beatles phase and it was sort of hollow.

“I remember looking, we were always looking for different records. I remember hearing Debbie Harry on the radio and I went down to the record store Virgin in Coventry and got it and of course, it went down a storm. Debbie was so distinct, she was so different.

“Was that New Wave, was it punk, was it rock, was it pop? You didn’t quite ever know, but Debbie just was perfect for that time, it was great.”

Waterman continued: “Sometimes you meet people that you’ve played as a DJ and looked up to and have been successful. They never quite live up to a personal meeting. That was not the case with Debbie, she was fantastic.

“She just had charisma. And we were all in awe as she came in. And we still talk about the ‘Debbie Harry moment.’ That’s how important it was to us.”

As the 1980s arrived, the group hit something of a rut, with their album The Hunter being poorly received, and disputes between band members triggering a break-up in November 1982. Harry continued her solo career but it was only when Blondie’s legacy began to be appreciated again by a new generation of 1990s rockers that the group decided to get back together, reforming in 1997 and following up with a series of albums and tours, culminating in 2017’s Pollinator.

Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters told the show: “I’ll never forget when I moved to New York when I was 20 years old. She was around and there I remember one of my first big go-go dancing gigs. She was singing. I was just so blown away to be in her presence.

“Years later, Scissor Sisters got to tour with Blondie and it was such an honour to be on the road with them…

“She’s a wonderful person. She’s hilarious. And it’s just been a great pleasure in my life to get to be around her.”

As for her plans, any big gathering to celebrate eight glorious decades will be tinged with sadness due to the death of Clem Burke in April.

Harry has said she hopes to “be with my friends and to celebrate the life of my drummer, Clem Burke, who recently passed, and celebrate my own life”.

Whichever way she parties, it is sure to be cool and inimitable in the true Blondie style.

Debbie Harry: The Fans’ Story is on BBC Sounds now and will be broadcast on
BBC Radio 2 tomorrow (Saturday 28 June) at midnight.

https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/2073933/blondie-turns-80-happy-birthday