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Tiffany set for ‘Retrotonic’ time at Mount Airy

Tiffany, the late-1980s teen-pop sensation, will showcase hits, a new single and more when she performs April 6 at Mount Airy Casino Resort, Woodland Road, Mount Pocono.

The show, part of Tiffany’s Retrotonic Tour, will also feature R&B/pop group All-4-One. The act scored 1990s hits such as “So Much in Love,” I Swear” and “I Can Love You Like That.”

Retrotonic will include Tiffany’s version of Robbie Williams’ 1997 hit “Angels.” The red-haired singer performed the track, due for release Friday, during her run as Eiffel Tower earlier this year on the British edition of “The Masked Singer.” She finished in fourth place.

Tiffany, planning to release an “Angels” video, called her time on the sing-off “the best thing ever. I loved Eiffel Tower. I’m still riding high from that.”

No stranger to singing contests, Tiffany was a runner-up on “Star Search” in the mid-1980s. She also competed on British and U.S. versions of “Hit Me, Baby, One More Time” in 2005.

Aside from “Angels,” Tiffany’s recent singles include the holiday song “Angels All Around” and “Ladies of the ’80s.” She also recorded “Cardigan” for a Taylor Swift tribute album.

Born Tiffany Renee Darwish in Norwalk, California, the singer - whose late parents divorced shortly after she turned 1 - enjoyed music from the time she was a toddler. Always wanting to perform, she started dancing at age 3 or 4.

Tiffany, who grew up listening to and performing country music, started singing professionally at 9, opening for Johnny Lee, Little Richard and others. Influences included Emmylou Harris, Tammy Wynette, Fleetwood Mac and Heart.

Pop, rock and dance infused Tiffany‘s self-titled 1987 debut album, released when she was 15. That same year, a shopping-mall tour made Tiffany ubiquitous with ’80s mall culture.

Following the single “Danny,” a cover of Tommy James and the Shondells’ 1967 hit “I Think We’re Alone Now” hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100. Tiffany, not a fan of the song at first, eventually came to adore the track, which she has re-recorded on multiple occasions.

While working on her first album, what would become Tiffany’s second consecutive No. 1 single was met with some resistance, though not from the singer.

“They didn’t want me to record ‘Could’ve Been.’ They said, ’You’re 14, what do you know about these big love ballads?’ My response was, when you have a crush on boys and it doesn’t work out, it’s devastating.”

At the time, Tiffany was the youngest female to top Billboard’s pop albums chart. The debut set also housed “I Saw Him Standing There” - a Beatles cover - and “Feelings of Forever.”

Though selling a quarter of the 4-million-plus-selling “Tiffany,” 1988’s “Hold an Old Friend’s Hand” was a top 20 album. Hits included “All This Time,” and “Radio Romance.”

Tiffany, not encouraged to write songs early on, had a couple of co-writing credits on her third album, 1990s “New Inside.” The R&B/new-jack-swing record, which featured the soaring Diane Warren ballad “Here in My Heart,” failed to dent Billboard’s albums chart.

On top of bad timing, “the label didn’t really know what to do with me,” said Tiffany, who at 18 wanted a change in style and sound. She also had parted ways with manager/producer George Tobin, who Tiffany’s mom and the media portrayed as a Svengali-like figure.

“I could have facilitated that a lot better now. There definitely have been some better transitions into adulthood than myself.”

While Tiffany has faced numerous career hurdles, validity remains the biggest challenge. In a review of a recent show, “someone said they didn’t know Tiffany could perform like that, sing like that. It was a complimentary review. They were shocked.”

Starting with 2000s “The Color of Silence,” Tiffany - who wrote poetry as a youth - became a more active songwriter. She idolized Bob Dylan, James Taylor and Stevie Nicks.

Tiffany, whose discography includes forays into dance and country, released her 11th studio album, “Shadows,” in late 2022. The pop-rock set’s title track, she said, “is everything I envisioned the album to sound like. It will be a single in upcoming months.”

Aside from music, Tiffany has starred in films such as 1990s “Jetsons: The Movie” and the 2011 Syfy title “Mega Python vs. Gatoroid.” The latter co-starred Debbie Gibson, with whom Tiffany and others performed on the 2019 Mixtape Tour and single “80s Baby.”

Other projects include a 2002 Playboy pictorial, reality-competition shows and culinary endeavors such as a cooking club, cookbooks, and Takeover events mixing food and music.

Tiffany, working on new music in her Nashville, Tennessee, home studio, teased a surprise coming at the end of 2024. For now, “I’m enjoying what I’m doing,” said the mother of Elijah, a structural-engineer. “It’s time to rejuvenate myself, see the world again, enjoy life.”

Tiffany, the late-1980s teen-pop sensation, will showcase hits, a new single and more when she performs April 6 at Mount Airy Casino Resort. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO