Although Gibson is best known as a pop princess, she didn’t start her career as a well-groomed record company product. Her history is the virtual opposite of today’s young mega-stars

At age 12, Gibson wrote a tune that won a songwriting contest. That sparked her interest in the music business and she went on to become proficient at arranging, engineering and producing, and learned to play a number of instruments.

The result: By 1985 a teen-age Gibson had recorded more than 100 of her own songs.

Since her wildly successful run at the top of the charts, she’s been heavily involved in Broadway musicals. She’s starred in “Les Miserables,” “Grease,” “Funny Girl,” “Beauty And The Beast,” and most recently, “Cinderella.”

In March, Gibson released her latest album, M.Y.O.B. (Mind Your Own Business) on her own Golden Egg label.

Even though she has maintained the obligatory squeaky clean image, Gibson obviously has a sense of humor about her pop stardom. She didn’t balk when Mojo Nixon paid tribute to her with the song “Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant With My Two-Headed Love Child” several years ago, and in 1995, she recorded a duet of The Soft Boys’ “I Wanna Destroy You” with the old-school punkers the Circle Jerks.