Kate Houghton talks to Tiffany, she of the big hair and biggest of hits, in the lead up to Rewind North, at Capesthorne Hall in Cheshire this August.

I think we’re alone now…this single massive hit from US teen star Tiffany resonates across the decades like no other, and soon she’ll be belting it out across a field of neon happiness, at Rewind North, the biggest summer celebration of 80’s music there is.

Tiffany was just 15 when her iconic bubble-gum pop song filled the airwaves of 1987, both in the US and the UK. Her success was due in great part to a dazzling stroke of marketing genius, sending this all-American girl-next-door to tour the malls of America, a manufactured pop Princess who didn’t stand a chance, back in the day before planning for longevity was even considered. Her voice, her looks, her style – it all should have added up to a long and successful future, but it was not to be.

‘It was very hard back then, for people to understand how to transition a young singer into adulthood. I think we’ve got better, now, with the Taylor Swifts and Demi Lovatos and all these girls who started quite young but are now adults, but in the 80’s it was really hard to make that transition.

‘I think I’ve has to learn to be patient...definitely at 18/19 it felt like a stall-out on my career, like I’d done something wrong. You know, you’re so successful and then it’s like “oh, so this album didn’t do so well so that’s it…” I took some time to understand it all, to live in my own shoes and then spend some time with other artists who are inspirational to me and realise that they too had some gaps in their career and they just kept going, frankly, and that was a big inspiration to me – if you love what you do, keep going. I mean, I’m a lifer, I’ve never thought about doing anything else.’

When Tiffany calls herself a lifer, she’s not kidding: she started performing at the age of eight and was in Nashville by the age of 10.

‘A lot of people don’t know I started off in Country music, at eight. There was a whole life before I was spotted at 14! I had a voice, that I sounded like a 30 year old woman, to be honest with you! People were very encouraging, like “she’s definitely a singer!” but my parents had no clue, what to do with me, so my step-dad just went out and asked questions. He met bands who said I was more than welcome to jam with them at the weekends and one thing led to another and my dad, he definitely wasn’t shy…

‘I think it was a different time, people just wanted to help people out, with no financial gain, and they sent me to Nashville the first time when I was 10, so I definitely have my roots there and when I go home I spend a lot of my time with the writing community there and maybe doing some showcases here and there, and that’s a great pleasure of mine, for really that town to embrace you as a singer-songwriter, takes some time so I wear it very proudly that I’ve been accepted in that family.’

She hasn’t stopped working over the decades and has fought to prove the nay-sayers completely wrong.

‘I’ve had all this stuff about “oh, she’s a one hit wonder” and “she has a manufactured voice” and it’s not just been about that I want to prove people wrong, but because it’s always been in my heart.

Now it’s great to live up to my own expectations really and for people now to start to notice it. I feel it’s all kicking off now and I’m very excited about it.’

Tiffany has released a new single, Worlds Away and a new album, Pieces of Me, from which she will be teasing the Rewind crowds with a single song. As she was a teenager herself in the 80s, I wonder if she had her own pop heroes, who now she might be meeting?

‘Recently I was just able to meet Boy George, and to me that was it,’ she laughs. ‘I got a picture and it was really cool! The highlights for me are when I get to see Kim Wilde, Carole Decker…I grew up listening to them, being in awe of them, they were the “cool girls”, older than me (if not by much!) and now I get to hang out with them!

‘I love the festivals! Rewind’s going to be a blast!’

While neither of Tiffany’s female idols are at this year’s festival, the line-up is sure to provide her with much backstage fun…and us with serious enjoyment too.

3 – 5 August 2018 | Capesthorne Hall | www.north.rewindfestival.com