Tiffany.
When you think of Tiffany, you might be instantly transported to the 80s and remember the mall girl who made a name for herself with the hit “I Think We’re Alone Now.” Maybe you remember her from her countless reality television appearances or even as Judy Jetson from The Jetsons Movie. She’s really done it all.
If you see her now, she retains her rocker spirit and bubbly energy but also has a brassy mom vibe with big Melissa Schemment from Abbot Elementary energy. She’s done it all, from acting to singing, and her run on the Food Network series Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off helped ignite an excitement for the kitchen.
Now she’s got a new cookbook, Pop Life: The Ultimate 80s Kitchen Encore, along with a cooking club called Let’s Food with Tiffany. She also continues to perform and is still touring. She took some time from her busy schedule to chat with us about her past, what inspired her new book, and all things mall culture.
Why do you think you have such a big gay following?
I’ve always just tried to be real with my life, the good, the bad, honest. I mean, I love a little bit of glamour, but then I’m also very, very real. I’m very down to earth. Sometimes maybe too down to earth. You’ve just got to live who you are, and I’m a little bit of all of it. I think my gay fan base sees that, like they really allow me to be who I am. And I love that, you know?
Do you have a message for your LGBTQ fans?
I love you guys so much. And thank you for being a part of my world all these years. Thank you for loving my songs. I love the chance to have these meet-and-greets with fans. When people tell me, “Girl, your music means everything to me, it really helped comfort me,” or “It gave me the courage to, or it gave me the strength.” I don’t take it lightly.
What do you like about engaging with your LGBTQ fans?
I love chit-chatting. I love getting all this fashion scoop as well. Sometimes they’re a little too honest, but I really do love performing at Prides. Everybody comes ready to rock. You know, it’s one of the best, best, best audiences because everybody is present and engaging and just ready to have a good time.
Why do you think people resonate so much with your music?
I had a very turbulent childhood; I would often go in my bedroom and play Stevie Nicks
and just pretend I was someplace else, and that wasn’t happening outside my door. And it would soothe me because I was just a kid and my household could get a little crazy. I think some of my songs, even though the pop songs were pop, there was some grit there. Some of the ballads were deep for a young person to be singing them.
Like, what?
Songs like “Could Have Been.” The label didn’t want me to record them. They were like, this is too adult for you. And I was like, “Have you ever seen a 14-year-old in love or heartbroken?” You’re never gonna find anybody else; that’s it. That is the one. And if they break your heart, God forbid, you’re never going to recover, and it’s magnified by a zillion when you’re young.
I really fought to have “Could Have Been” on the album, because it showed I could sing, but I disagreed that it was too adult for me. And, you know, it’s on the album, became number one, and it really is an anthem song for me. It’s my favorite song that I sing.
Do you sing it on tour?
It is the highlight of the show. It’s the one moment we’ve kind of drawn it out a little bit and extended it, so we have the fan moments; everybody sings along. But I think there’s maybe something to the music, and then maybe something to me.
Can you tell me a bit about the progression of your music from then to now?
Learning to stand up for myself, learning to become a songwriter, you know, in the earlier albums I didn’t write and no one really wanted to help encourage that, or develop that. It was happening anyway, so I took some time and just started working with my band members. I’m a big advocate of if one door closes, there’s another door. If you want something, go and get it. And it doesn’t mean that it will happen on a massive level.
Do you have any advice for fans?
If you’re happy with what you’re doing and you feel like you’re growing as a person, and you feel like you’re living what you thought would be the design of your life on any level, that to me is great. It’s great for mental health. It’s great for the spirit. That’s kind of what I’ve done in my life.
Can you tell me about your life now?
I wanted to become a songwriter. I wanted to be a mom. I wanted to move to Nashville and be a hippie dippy doo, you know, and have time off. I live part-time in the UK now. I’m getting really into the culinary world there. I take the train into London; I’ve got my coffee and my dew and all my stuff. But then when I go home to Nashville, I literally kick off my flip-flops, hair in a ponytail, and I’m grounded in the earth. I’m planting stuff. I have an orchard.
When you said my coffee and my dew, did you mean Mountain Dew?
Oh, no, I mean like my sausage rolls or my pasties or whatever else I’m grabbing on the go. I love my M&S, and I always have my cappuccino…it’s called a cup of personality for me. Like, that’s how we start the day.
Can you tell me a bit more about your love of food? Where did that start?
I started traveling when I was so young; I always wanted to go where the locals went. I wanted to shop local. I never took it for granted that I was going to come back to these places because I didn’t know. All of a sudden, I’m in, like, Thailand and India and the UK; I never knew if I was coming back
I was like, I want to go eat where the locals are. So I was always dragging my band because I was so young. I had to have people with me, and I’d be like, it’s adventure time. Let’s go. And I think that’s where, you know, I started to kind of talk to my fans about, “Where’s a good place to eat?” It became a dialogue. And so many people, as you travel the world, are really excited about their food and their music. And they light up when you ask them about it, to be honest with you, so it just became something that I did.
You have a cooking club; how did that start?
During Covid, I had this deep, deep, deep sadness of missing my mom and my grandmother, my dad, and I just started cooking my grandma’s recipes, because it made me happy. I thought, well, I’m gonna show this to my fans, because I think they’re doing the same thing.
So that’s when I started a cooking club, Let’s Food with Tiffany. It was just me in the kitchen hanging out, but talking like this. And it became a weekly thing, and I think it was more than just cooking; it really was a friendship. And once COVID kind of went away
I started traveling again. I just decided I don’t want to give this up.
So after that, I started developing my spice blends: Rockstar Za’atar, Hip Hop Harissa, and Let’s Taco Taco Taco.
I want to do what’s called TIFF takeovers, where I go into restaurants from mom and pop places to high-end places. They’re ticketed events. They get an appetizer, maybe an entree, maybe one of my poptails, don’t know, but whatever I work with the venue on their level. And a Q&A. And then we rock it out. We do a little acoustic show.
Can you tell me about the book?
The cookbook with Chef Alicia [Shevetone]. I met her just as a friend first. A friend connected and said, I think you guys would be girlfriends And sure enough, we were instant girlfriends. And then the creative came. And so many of my records have been like that. So many of my other projects have been like that, where you know you meet people, and you’re like, everybody’s like, oh, you should do something together.
I’m not a chef. I’m a foodie. I’m a newbie, and I think that also makes people feel comfortable. It’s like we’re going on this adventure together; let’s see what we get into. And I literally, that’s, I mean, that’s part of my life in the UK. I am now being exposed to the bigger, broader culinary world, which I love.
I can’t let you go without asking you about malls.
We need fun back. I wish we had the malls back. I’m a big fan of small business myself, and it’s so necessary for people to make different incomes nowadays, and you get those unique, one-of-a-kind pieces in that. But the mall represented gathering. It was a safe place to go. You’d go and pick up something and try something on, and you know, if you had kids, you would drop them off there. They could be in the arcade, the music shop, whatever. It was just a culture.
You walked around; even if you had no money in your pocket, you got dressed up, and you kind of walked around, and you saw other kids from other schools or your school, whatever it was, it was a destination. We don’t have places like that anymore
And it’s very sad, you know, I mean, a lot of the malls are dying all over wherever I go. And, you know, being part of the mall tour was brilliant.
You’re also touring!
I do, so I’m going to Chile, to the Philippines, and then I’m doing Kim Wilde’s The Singles tour in the UK early 2027. Meanwhile, I have the All This Time tour that I’m doing now, which is pure retro. And I have all my pop life parties, so I’m pretty busy right now. You know, just wearing all hats, about to head to New Mexico for a book signing convention, so lots of book signing conventions in my future.
You can read all about Tiffany’s projects, including her tour, on her website. You can also purchase POP LIFE: The Ultimate 80s Kitchen Encore.
The National LGBT Media Association represents 13 legacy publications in major markets across the country with a collective readership of more than 400K in print and more than 1 million + online. Learn more here: NationalLGBTMediaAssociation.com.
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