Isolation Is Not Going To Protect Anyone

Pop icon Debbie Harry talks about her life in New York and why walls can never be a solution.

- Marcel Anders

SHE IS LEAD SINGER of the new-wave band Blondie, which is known for hits like “Call Me,” “Heart Of Glass” and “The Tide is High.” Deborah Ann “Debbie” Harry, 71, has sold more than 40 million records worldwide over almost five decades. And that is not all: She has also been an actress, jazz singer and an environmental activist. For a long time she was considered as the uncrowned queen of New York nightlife and a bombshell. Debbie Harry and her band Blondie released their new album Pollinator in May.

Reader´s Digest: Blondie stands for New York—for nightclubs like Studio 54, for the art scene and for bold fashion. Would you ever leave the city?

Debbie Harry: No, never. It’s my home base.

New York was pretty seedy in the 70s and 80s, but that was good for the arts, wasn’t it?