The singer and style icon answers your questions on becoming ‘Blondie’, a lifetime cheating death – and the secret to a good cover version

Hey, Debbie, in Face It [Harry’s memoir], you discussed the creation of the Blondie persona. How intentional were your choices in character curation, and why did you choose to adopt a persona in the first place? ChloSchmo

I think we’re all seeing images or performances that we like and absorbing and amalgamating them. As a kid, the beautiful women on the silver screen were fairytale versions of what life is for a woman, because when I was coming up there was no such thing as women’s lib. A persona gave me freedom, a world of my own. You pick a character that you love and then it becomes you.