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Biography
Infobox musical artist | name = El DeBarge| background = solo_singer| birth_name = Eldra Patrick DeBarge| birth_date = Birth date and age|mf=yes|1961|6|4|birth_place = Detroit, Michigan | origin = Grand Rapids, Michigan , United States| instrument = Vocals , piano / Keyboard instrument|keyboards | genre = R& B , pop music|pop , soul music|soul | occupation = Singer-songwriter , music arranger , music composer , record producer , instrumentalist | Label(s) = Gordy , Warner Bros. Records , Geffen | years_active = 1979present| associated_acts = DeBarge, Switch (band)|Switch , Chico DeBarge Eldra Patrick "El" DeBargecite web|url= http://www.tmz.com/2008/10/27/el-debarge-el-busted-again/ |title=El DeBarge - El Busted Again |publisher=TMZ.com |date=2008-10-27 |accessdate=2010-07-05 (born June 4, 1961) is an American Rhythm and blues|R& B / pop music|pop singer-songwriter, known as the lead singer and co-founder of the Rhythm and blues|R& B / soul music DeBarge family|family group DeBarge throughout the early to mid-1980s. As a Musical ensemble|solo artist , he is best known for the hits " Who's Johnny " and "Love Always" and for his collaboration s with Tone Loc , Quincy Jones , Fourplay and DJ Quik . DeBarge is a three-time Grammy Awards|Grammy nominee. http://www.grammy.com/nominees? year=2010& genre=27 Nominees and Winners (2010) http://www.grammy.com/nominees? year=2011& genre=27 Nominees and Winners (2011)
Life and career
Early life
A native of Detroit, Michigan , El was the sixth of ten children born to Robert Louis DeBarge, Sr. (1932& ndash;2009) and Etterlene (n้e Abney) DeBarge. DeBarge was already singing in his local church choir and playing piano as a child. Later after his family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan|Grand Rapids , he and the rest of his family began performing at their uncle's Pentecostal church. At thirteen, his parents divorced after a difficult and stormy marriage. El is of African American , English American|English , French Canadian and Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American descent. Growing up, he was closest to eldest brother Bobby DeBarge|Bobby and began imitating his brother's vocal styling.
For several years, El spent time being in music education|private study with music educator Ricky Callier. By 1975, El had begun to express a desire to become a performer. El became a father for the first time at fifteen. He would eventually father eleven children. In 1977, he dropped out of high school and began performing with his elder brothers in clubs and venues in Michigan . That year, Gregory Williams, a member of brother Bobby DeBarge|Bobby 's group, Switch (band)|Switch began mentoring El and brothers Marty and Randy, helping to record early recordings as part of the SMASH imprint. By 1979, eldest sister Bunny DeBarge|Bunny joined her brothers and Williams sent a demo of the siblings' recordings to Motown Records|Motown CEO Berry Gordy , who immediately signed the group, then known as The DeBarges, to the label.
Motown mentor ed them with members later working and contributing songwriting, arrangements and production to the recordings of Switch, including the 1980 albums, This Is My Dream and Reaching for Tomorrow . El DeBarge's first professional recording was as background singer|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. The song later would be sampled by the likes of Queen Pen and Raheem DeVaughn .
Music career
main|DeBargeIn 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 (album)|All This Love featured younger brother James DeBarge|James and saw much success with the compositions, " I Like It (DeBarge song)|I Like It " and All This Love (song)|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 on the singer's Busy Body tour. Though the group enjoyed much success and appeared to be a family unit, there was 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 and The Miracles . By the end of the tour, El DeBarge was mainly called to handle the production of DeBarge's next album, Rhythm of the Night (album)|Rhythm of the Night , without much help from his siblings.
Rhythm of the Night became the group's best-selling album ever though some contended that El DeBarge was the only member present on the album with the exception of the Rhythm of the Night (song)|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 . In 1986, El DeBarge left the group and began his solo career with the release of his El DeBarge (album)|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 (El DeBarge album)|Gemini in 1989. The album was a failure and DeBarge's contract with Motown was terminated in 1990 and he signed with Warner Bros. Records|Warner Bros. . In the meantime, DeBarge was featured on the Quincy Jones single, " The Secret Garden (Sweet Seduction Suite) ", alongside Al B. Sure! , James Ingram and Barry White , released in 1990.
In 1992, DeBarge released his third album, the Maurice White -produced In The Storm , which featured the Chante Moore duet, "You Know What I Like", which was Moore's first professional recording. Critics noted the album for its Marvin Gaye -styled productions, with El DeBarge later admitting that Gaye was a huge influence on his musical style. He once commented that he had initially written "All This Love" as a song he imagined Gaye doing, even imitating Gaye's ad-libs during his I Want You (Marvin Gaye album)|I Want You era near the end. That same year, he 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 (El DeBarge album)|Heart, Mind and Soul , was co-produced with Babyface (musician)|Babyface , yielding 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 brother Chico DeBarge|Chico and rapper DJ Quik among others (the duo collaborated on Quik's hit "Hand In Hand"), he didn't release any more albums between 1994 and 2009. In 2010, he finally emerged from a sixteen-year delay with the appropriately titled Second Chance (album)|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 Grammy Award nominations: Grammy Award for Best R& B Performance|Best Male R& B Vocal Performance , Grammy Award for Best R& B Song|Best R& B Song , and Grammy Award for Best R& B Album|Best R& B Album . He remains the only member of the DeBarges to have Grammy nominations outside of the group and in the family altogether.
Personal life
El was raised in Detroit and Grand Rapids as a child. El's parents had a tumultuous marriage that involved domestic abuse and child abuse on the part of El's father Robert. El has remained mum 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 1976, El DeBarge became a father to his first child, a daughter named Adris. He eventually went on to father eleven children altogether. El was close to his siblings. He had a set of twins that died from Dallas, Texas, particularly his brothers Bobby DeBarge|Bobby and Chico DeBarge|Chico . Bobby DeBarge's death in 1995 had a profound effect on El, family members later saying he has never fully recovered from Bobby's death. Since Bobby's death, he has performed several of Bobby's songs with Switch onstage, sometimes with Chico DeBarge singing along. El and several DeBarge brothers reunited in 1998 performing several DeBarge classics. El currently lives in Los Angeles .
Legal problems and drug addiction
In 2001 he was arrest ed for cocaine possession and was given probation . In 2006 he was arrested again for possession of a controlled substance and was once again given probation. In 2007 he was arrested in a domestic violence|domestic dispute and was held without bail . The charges were later dropped. Later that year he was arrested yet again and charged with cocaine possession and given probation again. However, he was once again arrested in 2008 for possession of crack cocaine|crack and drug paraphernalia , breaking the terms of his probation. For this Summary offence|violation he was immediately sentenced to two years in federal prison in California .
El has had a history of drug abuse . He stated that his addiction started after he began receiving prescription medication for toothache pain after having a tooth pulled by a dentist. Up until then, El DeBarge had been seen as reliable, especially in comparison to his siblings, whose accounts of drug abuse started during the tenure of the group. By the mid-1990s, El had become addicted, and his addiction resulted in his career faltering after its peaks in the 1980s. Following a prison sentence in which he served two years, El declared himself born again (Christianity)|born again and announced that he had found sobriety after an addiction that he said had lasted nearly 25 years, stating he had also acknowledged his problems with the law in the past.
However in February 2011, while promoting 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.cite web|url= http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-20031962-10391698.html |title=El Debarge Enters Rehabilitation, Cancels Tour - Celebrity Circuit |publisher=CBS News |date= |accessdate=2012-03-29DeBarge has since returned to work and made an appearance at the 54th Grammy Awards in February 2012. He had failed to appear at the previous Grammy Awards due to his drug relapse.
On March 20, 2012, El was arrested in Encino for possession and sale of narcotics.cite web|last=Loinaz |first=Alexis L. |url= http://entertainment.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/21/10791921-el-debarge-arrested-again-for-drug-possession |title=msnbc.com Entertainment - El DeBarge arrested again for drug possession |publisher=Entertainment.msnbc.msn.com |date= |accessdate=2012-03-29 The singer, however, will not be charged because a Los Angeles district attorney found insufficient evidence.
Discography
Studio albums
Year
Album details
Peak chart positions
Certifications ( List of best selling music artists
Recording Industry Association of America|US : Goldcite web|url= http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php? table=SEARCH_RESULTS& artist=El%20DeBarge& format=ALBUM& go=Search& perPage=50|title=RIAA - Gold & Platinum - June 29, 2010: El DeBarge certified albums|publisher= Recording Industry Association of America |accessdate=2010-06-29
List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
References
Reflist
External links
Official website| http://www.eldebargemusic.com
cite web|url= http://www.soulmusic.com/elde20in.html|title=Heart & Soul: El DeBarge 2010 Interview
DeBarge Persondata | NAME = Debarge, El | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = Rhythm and blues|R& B / pop music|pop falsetto singer | DATE OF BIRTH = June 4, 1961 | PLACE OF BIRTH = Detroit, Michigan | DATE OF DEATH = | PLACE OF DEATH = DEFAULTSORT:Debarge, El Category:1961 births Category:American people of French-Canadian descent Category:American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters Category:African American musicians Category:African American singers Category:American soul singers Category:American soul keyboardists Category:American pianists Category:Singers with a three octave vocal range Category:DeBarge members Category:DeBarge family Category:Living people Category:People convicted of drug offenses Category:People from Grand Rapids, Michigan Category:Musicians from Detroit, Michigan Category:Motown artists Category:People self-identifying as substance abusers Category:Warner Bros. Records artists Category:Interscope Records artists
Copyright Citations
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