DeBarge was a sibling

DeBarge family

The DeBarge family is a family of rhythm and blues artists from Detroit and Grand Rapids, Michigan.-Family members:Robert Louis DeBarge, Sr. was a soldier who served for the United States Armed forces and was of French Canadian descent. He met Etterlene Abney, who is African American, in Detroit,...

 music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

 group

Band (music)

In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...

 of American origin whose repertoire included R&B

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

, soul

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

, funk

Funk

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...

, and later gospel

Gospel music

Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....

. Active as a professional recording group from 1979 and 1989, the group was one of the few recording acts to bring success to the Motown

Motown Records

Motown is a record label originally founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation in Detroit, Michigan, United States, on April 14, 1960. The name, a portmanteau of motor and town, is also a nickname for Detroit...

 label during the 1980s.
Hailing from Detroit and later from Grand Rapids

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...

, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

, the group is named for their shared surname, and included sister Bunny

Bunny Debarge

Etterlene "Bunny" DeBarge is an American soul singer-songwriter, best known as the lone female sibling of the Motown family group DeBarge...

 and the brothers Mark

Mark DeBarge

Mark "Marty" DeBarge is an American R&B/soul singer-songwriter, trumpeter and flugelhorn player best known for his work as member of 1980s Motown singing family group DeBarge...

 (or "Marty"), Randy

Randy DeBarge

William Randall "Randy" DeBarge is an American R&B/soul singer and bass guitarist, best known for being one of the original members of the popular Motown singing family group DeBarge...

, Eldra

El DeBarge

Eldra Patrick "El" DeBarge is an American R&B/pop falsetto singer and was the focal point and lead singer of the family group DeBarge throughout the early to mid-1980s....

 (or "El"), and James

James DeBarge

James Curtis DeBarge is an American R&B and soul singer. He was one of the members of the singing family group DeBarge, who became stars with their 1980s songs "All This Love", "In a Special Way", "Rhythm of the Night", and "Who's Holding Donna Now?".DeBarge is also known for his 1984 marriage to...

.Younger sibling

Sibling

Siblings are people who share at least one parent. A male sibling is called a brother; and a female sibling is called a sister. In most societies throughout the world, siblings usually grow up together and spend a good deal of their childhood socializing with one another...

s Chico

Chico DeBarge

Jonathan Arthur "Chico" DeBarge is an American R&B singer and a younger brother of the members of the Motown family act DeBarge...

, Darell, and Carol "Peaches" DeBarge are also singers (though they were not with the group), with El later becoming a solo

Solo (music)

In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...

 star in his own right.