Eldra Patrick "El" DeBarge (born June 4, 1961) is an American singer, songwriter and musician. He was the focal point and primary lead singer of the family group

DeBarge DeBarge was an American musical recording group composed of several members of the DeBarge family. In addition to various solo projects completed by members of the family, DeBarge was active between 1979 and 1989. The group originally consisted ...

. Popular songs led by El DeBarge include " Time Will Reveal", " Who's Holding Donna Now", "

Stay with Me Stay with Me may refer to: Film and television * ''Stay with Me'' (2004 film), an Italian film * ''Stay with Me'' (2010 film), a Canadian drama film * ''Stay with Me'' (2018 film), a South Korean romantic drama film * ''Stay with Me'' (TV series), ...

", " All This Love", and " Rhythm of the Night". As a solo artist, he is best known for his unique high

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...

Dionne Warwick Marie Dionne Warwick (; born December 12, 1940) is an American singer, actress, and television host. Warwick ranks among the 40 biggest U.S. hit makers between 1955 and 1999, based on her chart history on ''Billboards Hot 100 pop singles ch ...

Al Green Albert Leornes Greene (born April 13, 1946), better known as Al Green, is an American singer, songwriter, pastor and record producer best known for recording a series of soul hit singles in the early 1970s, including " Take Me to the River", ...

, Lalah Hathaway,

Tone Loc Anthony Terrell Smith (born March 3, 1966), better known by his stage name Tone Lōc (), is an American rapper, actor, and producer. He is known for his raspy voice, his hit songs " Wild Thing" and " Funky Cold Medina", for which he was nomin ...

, Babyface, Faith Evans,

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. His career spans 70 years in the entertainment industry with a record of 80 Grammy Award n ...

, Fourplay, and

DJ Quik David Marvin Blake (born January 18, 1970), better known by his stage names DJ Quik or Da Quiksta, is an American rapper and producer, known for his production in the G-funk style of West Coast hip-hop. Blake has collaborated with Snoop Dogg, ...

. DeBarge is a five-time

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

nominee.

Early life

A native of

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

, El was the sixth of the children born to Robert Louis DeBarge Sr. (1932–2009) and Etterlene (née Abney) DeBarge. DeBarge sang in his local

church choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

and played piano as a child. Later, after his family moved to

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is th ...

, he and the rest of his family began performing at their uncle's

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestantism, Protestant Charismatic Christianity, Charismatic Christian movementBobby and began imitating his brother's vocal styling. For several years, El spent time in private study with music educator Ricky Callier. By 1975, El had begun to express a desire to become a performer. He became a father for the first time at 16 and eventually fathered 11 more children. In 1977, he dropped out of high school and began performing with his elder brothers in clubs and venues in Michigan. By 1979, Bernd Lichters was able to secure a deal with Source Records/MCA to release the Pall Mall Groove – Hot Ice album as SMASH for the USA/Canada market and moved El from Michigan to Los Angeles, to have him, his brothers Mark and Randy DeBarge, in addition to their cousin Andre Abney, Elliot Townsend, and Stanley Hood, to back up the release as the SMASH band. His eldest sister

Bunny Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit sp ...

joined her brothers in California. In 1980, because of the success of their brothers Bobby and Tommy DeBarge with the hit group

Switch In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...

, El was able to perform live at the piano and sing in front of

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

CEO

Berry Gordy Berry Gordy III (born November 28, 1929), known professionally as Berry Gordy Jr., is a retired American record executive, record producer, songwriter, film producer and television producer. He is best known as the founder of the Motown record l ...

, who immediately signed the group, then known as The DeBarges, to the label. Motown mentored them, and members later worked with and contributed songwriting, arrangements, and production to the recordings of Switch, including the 1980 albums ''

This Is My Dream ''This Is My Dream'' is the fourth album by R&B group Switch. It was released in 1980. This is also the only album during their tenure with Motown not to feature input from Jermaine Jackson; they produced this album themselves. Following a slum ...

'' and '' Reaching for Tomorrow''. El's first professional recording was as background vocalist to Switch's 1979 hit "I Call Your Name". He later helped to arrange music for several Switch songs including "Love Over and Over Again" and "My Friend in the Sky," which he, Bunny, and Bobby wrote. This song would later be sampled by the likes of Queen Pen and Raheem DeVaughn.

Career

In 1981, '' The DeBarges'' was released after the family had worked in the studio for a year recording it. The album was noted for most of its songs produced and written by all four family members including Bobby DeBarge, who helped end the album track "Queen of My Heart" after El had led the song for most of its tenure. The following album, 1982's '' All This Love'', featured younger brother James and saw much success with the compositions " I Like It" and the title track. El would remain the producer and arranger for all of the group's Motown albums. In 1983, DeBarge released '' In a Special Way'', which spawned the hits " Time Will Reveal" and " Love Me in a Special Way", and in 1984, the band became a sensation while touring for

Luther Vandross Luther Ronzoni Vandross Jr. (April 20, 1951 – July 1, 2005) was an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Known for his sweet and soulful vocals, Vandross has sold over 40 million records worldwide. He achieved eleven consecutive P ...

on the singer's ''Busy Body'' tour. Though the group enjoyed much success and appeared to be a family unit, there were growing tensions between El and his brothers, mainly because of Motown's push to have El become the only noted star of the group, repeating a pattern that began with

Smokey Robinson William "Smokey" Robinson Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and former record executive director. He was the founder and front man of the Motown vocal group the Miracles, for which he was also chief ...

and

The Miracles The Miracles (also known as Smokey Robinson and the Miracles from 1965 to 1972) were an American vocal group that was the first successful recording act for Berry Gordy's Motown Records, and one of the most important and most influential group ...

. By the end of the tour, El DeBarge was mainly called to handle the production of DeBarge's next album, '' Rhythm of the Night'', without much help from his siblings. The DeBarge family had one more album, ''Bad Boys'', although El and Bunny were not on the album. ''Rhythm of the Night'' became the group's best-selling album ever, although some contended that El DeBarge was the only member present on the album with the exception of the title track, which became a top five hit in several countries including the US and UK becoming the group's and El's

signature song A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and intent. The writer of a ...

. In late 1985, he appeared on '' The Facts of Life'' in the Season 7 episode "Doo-Wah" as himself and performed his single "You Wear it Well" with Lisa Whelchel, Kim Fields, Mindy Cohn, and Nancy McKeon singing backup. In 1986, El DeBarge left the group and began his solo career with the release of his self-titled debut album, which spawned the hits " Who's Johnny" and " Love Always". Three years passed, however, until DeBarge released his second album, '' Gemini'' in 1989. The album had two hits, "Real Love" and "Somebody Loves You". DeBarge's contract with Motown was terminated in 1990, and he signed with Warner Bros. In the meantime, DeBarge was featured on the

single " The Secret Garden", alongside Al B. Sure!, James Ingram, and

Barry White Barry Eugene Carter (September 12, 1944 – July 4, 2003), better known by his stage name Barry White, was an American singer and songwriter. A two-time Grammy Award winner known for his bass voice and romantic image, his greatest success came ...

, released in 1990. In 1992, DeBarge released his third album, the

Maurice White Maurice White (December 19, 1941 – February 4, 2016) was an American singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer. He was best known as the founder, leader, main songwriter, and producer of the band Earth, Wind & Fire, and served as the ...

-produced ''

In the Storm ''In the Storm'' is the third studio album by El DeBarge released in 1992 on Warner Bros. Records. The album got to No. 22 on the ''Blues & Soul'' Top UK Soul Albums chart. Overview ''In The Storm'' was produced by both El DeBarge and Maurice ...

'', which featured the Chanté Moore duet " You Know What I Like", which was Moore's first professional recording. Critics noted the album for its

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...

-styled productions. El DeBarge later admitted that Gaye was a huge influence on his musical style and once commented that he had initially written "All This Love" as a song he imagined Gaye doing; he even imitated Gaye's ad-libs during his '' I Want You'' era near the end. That same year, El had chart success on the R&B charts with a collaboration with Fourplay on their version of Gaye's " After the Dance". DeBarge's next album, 1994's '' Heart, Mind and Soul'', co-produced with Babyface, yielded modest charted singles such as "Slide" and "Where is My Love" (which featured Babyface on duet vocals). While DeBarge continued to collaborate on other artists' projects, including those of his brother Chico and rapper

(with whom El collaborated on Quik's hit "Hand in Hand"), he did not release any more albums between 1994 and 2009. In 2010, he finally emerged from a 16-year delay with the appropriately titled '' Second Chance'', released after a series of comeback performances and appearances, including a well received performance at the 2010 BET Awards. The album yielded two singles, "Second Chance" and the Faith Evans duet "Lay With You", and later resulted in three

nominations:

Best Male R&B Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance was awarded between 1968 and 2011. The award has had several minor name changes: *In 1968 it was awarded as Best R&B Solo Vocal Performance, Male *From 1969 to 1994 it was awarded as Best R&B ...

, Best R&B Song and Best R&B Album. El remains the only member of the DeBarges to have Grammy nominations both outside of the group and in the family. In 2020, DeBarge made an unexpected return to pop culture after

RuPaul RuPaul Andre Charles (born November 17, 1960; stylized as RuPaul) is an American drag queen, television personality, actor, musician, and model. Best known for producing, hosting, and judging the reality competition series '' RuPaul's Drag Race ...

referenced his signature mullet on the television show '' RuPaul's Drag Race''. Season 12 contestant Crystal Methyd appeared sporting an identical mullet, much to the enjoyment of RuPaul. On February 4, 2022, DeBarge performed a Tiny Desk Concert for

NPR Music NPR Music is a project of National Public Radio, an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization, that launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music ...

at his home, playing keyboards and singing. The concert was part of a celebration of

Black History Month Black History Month is an annual observance originating in the United States, where it is also known as African-American History Month. It has received official recognition from governments in the United States and Canada, and more recently ...

Personal life

DeBarge was raised in Detroit and

as a child. His parents had a tumultuous marriage that involved domestic abuse and

child abuse Child abuse (also called child endangerment or child maltreatment) is physical, sexual, and/or psychological maltreatment or neglect of a child or children, especially by a parent or a caregiver. Child abuse may include any act or failure to a ...

on the part of DeBarge's father Robert. DeBarge has remained silent on his relationship with his father and many other elements of his family life, later documented in books written by his mother Etterlene, sister Bunny, and brother Tommy. In 1978, DeBarge became a father to his first child, a daughter named Adris. He eventually went on to father 12 children altogether. DeBarge was close to his siblings, particularly his brothers Bobby and Chico. Bobby's death in 1995 had a profound effect on DeBarge; family members later said he has never fully recovered from it. Since Bobby's death, he has performed several of Bobby's songs with Switch onstage, sometimes with Chico singing along. DeBarge and several DeBarge brothers reunited in 1998 performing several DeBarge classics.

Legal problems and drug addiction

DeBarge has had a history of drug abuse and legal problems. He has stated that his addiction started after he began receiving

prescription medication A prescription drug (also prescription medication or prescription medicine) is a pharmaceutical drug that legally requires a medical prescription to be dispensed. In contrast, over-the-counter drugs can be obtained without a prescription. The r ...

for toothache pain after having a tooth pulled by a dentist. By the mid-1990s, DeBarge's addiction problems resulted in his career faltering after its peaks in the 1980s. In 2001, DeBarge was arrested for

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South Am ...

possession and was given

probation Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration. In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences (alternatives to incarceration), such ...

. In 2006, he was arrested again for possession of a

controlled substance A controlled substance is generally a drug or chemical whose manufacture, possession and use is regulated by a government, such as illicitly used drugs or prescription medications that are designated by law. Some treaties, notably the Single ...

and was once again given probation. In 2007, he was arrested in a

domestic dispute Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for '' intimate partne ...

and was held without bail; the charges were later dropped. Later that year he was arrested yet again, charged with cocaine possession, and given probation. However, he was once again arrested in 2008 for possession of crack and

drug paraphernalia "Drug paraphernalia" is a term to denote any equipment, product or accessory that is intended or modified for making, using or concealing drugs, typically for recreational purposes. Drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and methampheta ...

, breaking the terms of his probation. For this violation he was immediately sentenced to two years in state prison in California. Following a prison sentence for which he served 13 months, DeBarge announced that he had found

sobriety Sobriety is the condition of not having any measurable levels or effects from alcohol or drugs. Sobriety is also considered to be the natural state of a human being at birth. A person in a state of sobriety is considered sober. Organization ...

after an addiction that he said had lasted nearly 25 years, stating he had also acknowledged his problems with the law in the past. In February 2011, while promoting his 2010 album ''Second Chance'', DeBarge's label announced that the singer was canceling all public dates and appearances as he went back to rehab following a relapse. DeBarge later returned to work and made an appearance at the

54th Grammy Awards The 54th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 12, 2012, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles being broadcast on CBS honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2010 through September 30, 2011. LL Cool J hosted the ...

in February 2012.

Discography

;Solo albums * '' El DeBarge'' (1986) * '' Gemini'' (1989) * ''

'' (1992) * '' Heart, Mind and Soul'' (1994) * '' Second Chance'' (2010) ;with DeBarge * '' The DeBarges'' (1981) * '' All This Love'' (1982) * '' In a Special Way'' (1983) * '' Rhythm of the Night'' (1985)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Debarge, El 1961 births 20th-century African-American male singers 21st-century African-American male singers African-American male singer-songwriters American people of French-Canadian descent American rhythm and blues singers American rhythm and blues keyboardists American soul singers American soul keyboardists Singers with a three-octave vocal range DeBarge members DeBarge family Living people American people convicted of drug offenses Musicians from Grand Rapids, Michigan Motown artists Warner Records artists Interscope Records artists American tenors Singers from Detroit 20th-century American pianists 21st-century American keyboardists 21st-century American pianists American male pianists African-American pianists Singer-songwriters from Michigan