Debbie Gibson talks LI upbringing, health woes and her career at Warner Music event

Merrick-raised music star Debbie Gibson reminisced Monday about launching her multiplatinum career on Long Island, as she spoke to fans and others as part of Warner Music’s periodic Rock ‘n Roll High School lecture series for company staffers.

Dressed in beige stiletto heels, a black top, black pants and denim jacket, Gibson, 47, fielded questions from Atlantic Records executive Pete Ganbarg before an audience of about 75, including 30 contest-winners, at Warner Music’s midtown-Manhattan headquarters. Referring obliquely to her recovery from Lyme disease, which had curtailed much of her activity through last year, Gibson said with amusement, “Someone will literally come to me after I’ve been on Broadway belting it out for three hours and ask, ‘Are you still singing?’ “

Born in Brooklyn, she lived in the Bensonhurst neighborhood “till I was 2. But there are still old Italian relatives scattered around there,” she said. “My dad was an orphan and his origins are kinda unknown … but I grew up with the Italians.” Merrick, said the Long Island Music Hall of Famer, was “a great place to grow up. A great place for the arts, Long Island.”

Gibson spent just over an hour-and-a-half mostly talking shop about the mechanics of her entry into the music industry as a teen, her rise with five top-10 hits in close succession from 1987 to 1989, and the trajectory of her career afterward, including Broadway shows and touring productions. “A good old-fashioned, hardworking American Dream story,” she said. Gibson was a contestant last year on “Dancing With the Stars” and has concerts set in Asia next month.

In response to fan questions, the singer, who now lives in Las Vegas, said, “There has been a lot of interest in me” performing a residency there, but “with my health as it was … I didn’t feel ready for that burst of energy at that moment, But I do see that happening, for sure.”

As parting advice to the Warner Music promotional staff in particular, she urged them not to assume there is a formula for hits, but to have a legitimate connection to the music. “I think if it’s all about ‘I want people to hear this song,’ you can’t go wrong.”