{"id":403728,"date":"2026-01-10T07:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T07:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/403728\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T07:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T07:38:09","slug":"the-blondie-song-debbie-harry-said-could-destroy-her-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/403728\/","title":{"rendered":"The Blondie song Debbie Harry said could destroy her voice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Debbie<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n

Fri 9 January 2026 20:22, UK <\/p>\n

Making a return to recorded music after 17 years is no easy feat. Culture is an ever-changing beast, and particularly in music, the gap in trends that 17 years can present is pretty seismic. But nevertheless, Blondie<\/a> took that challenge on in 1999 with their record No Exit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Timed to perfection, the lead single entered the charts just as the band were wrapping up a European tour and so planting a flag in the ground that announced this bold new era, but 1999 was far different from 1979, a year when their new-wave sound<\/a> could slip through the cracks of the decade\u2019s established genres.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In \u2018Maria\u2019, they had a song that perfectly blended the past and present, because it had a hook that was ready-made for the charts, while showcasing the grungy yet poppy rock sound that Blondie of old built a legacy on. To the initiated Blondie fans, it was unsurprising to hear that the track was penned by keyboardist Jimmy Destri, the man also responsible for \u2018Atomic\u2019,<\/a> \u2018Picture This\u2019, \u2018Nothing is Real but the Girl\u2019, and \u2018No Exit\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But in the latter stages of their career, subject inspiration had to be sourced from a completely different avenue. Rather than mining the personal experiences of his own love life, Destri looked to his daughter and observed the heightened feelings of adolescent lust. <\/p>\n

When asked about the inspiration, Destri said, \u201cTeenage desire, because I have a teenage daughter and she\u2019s pretty beautiful and I watch all these boys gawk at her.\u201d He continued, \u201cI put myself in their shoes, thinking about what I used to do with girls back then. I wasn\u2019t a very forward guy at all. I was like from afar, and I\u2019d go home and write a poem about her \u2013 I was really a sad little bastard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding, \u201cIt sounds cute, but you don\u2019t get any attention that way. So \u2018Maria\u2019 is about desire, and the whole idea of using the Ave Maria thing is a way of saying she\u2019s on a pedestal, she\u2019s almost holy. It\u2019s not a religious thing at all, I don\u2019t believe in religion really.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that wasn\u2019t the only way the track inspired a backwards-facing view of adolescence. No, for the band\u2019s iconic lead\u00a0vocalist, Debbie Harry, that powerful chorus line of \u2018Maria\u2019 was a reminder of just how stretched her vocal cords are as the leader of this band.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Harry soars on the finished version of the track and even more so during live performances of it, but she was quick to remind fans and critics just how difficult a note it is to hold. As \u2018Maria\u2019 grew in popularity and became a karaoke favourite the world over, Harry sharply reminded fans, \u201cIt has undone many a karaoke singer. And me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, \u2018Maria\u2019 remained a mainstay in the band\u2019s setlist for many years after its release. It was a pure representation of the modern rock sound that typified their revival, and Harry\u2019s vocal performance was at the very forefront of that.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy) Fri 9 January 2026 20:22, UK Making a return to recorded music after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,103455,214341,134,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-403728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-blondie","11":"tag-debbie-harry","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}