Songwriter, producer, and sopranist El Debarge has long captivated audiences with his beautiful voice and ballads. His artistry caught the attention of music legends from the likes of Quincy Jones, who counted him as one of his protégés, to rappers like The Notorious B.I.G., who used a sample from one of his biggest hits to make his signature classic the “One More Chance/ Stay with Me (Remix).”
Now, his children are proving that the sweet Debarge family fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Over the holidays, El’s ex-wife Tracey Ferguson posted on her Instagram footage of the former Motown singer with their two children, Joshua and Kyndall, hanging out and singing songs at the piano.
The first two clips featured El and 29-year-old Joshua, who is his father’s spitting image, singing a deconstructed version of Sade’s chart-topping single “Is It a Crime?”
From the moment Joshua opens his mouth, fans are transported back to a time when El dominated the airways with his silky voice.
Other clips show the two men joined by the 28-year-old Kyndall as they sing old DeBarge jams “A Dream” and “All This Love.”
The comment section included words like “beautiful,” “incredible,” and “magical.”
A few people remarked about the remarkable similarities that the family members have physically and vocally, writing, “Proof that cloning is REAL! OMG,” and “Genes are something else!!!! This blessed me.”
Before long, the short clips went viral and found themselves on the X platform, with fans just as enamored by the next generation’s voices as they were with El DeBarge’s.
One person said, “I follow Kyndall and her husband’s videos but didnt know shes el’s daughter, she got his singing voice and making it hers.”
“El DeBarge singing with his kids Josh & Kyndall has me in tears. Because WHAT?????” one person tweeted.
El DeBarge singing with his kids Josh & Kyndall has me in tears. Because WHAT????? 😭 🥹 pic.twitter.com/zJiaEheuBd
— Dawn (@_dawnmontgomery) December 28, 2023
Another X user took to the platform and said she tried to school people about Kyndall years ago.
“When El Debarge’s daughter dropped this song… I think it was in 2014,” she wrote. “I tried to tell everybodyyyyyyy because this was MY SH-T!! Excuseeeeez-moi???? Kyndall!”
When El Debarge's daughter dropped this song… I think it was in 2014..
— Allizay Earlette Simmons Greene (@AllizayGreene) December 28, 2023
I tried to tell everybodyyyyyyy because this was MY SHIT!!
Excuseeeeez-moi????
Kyndall !https://t.co/TMhmlB2nEW
The videos come at a good time for El Debarge and his children. Over the past few years, the 62-year-old, who was once estranged from his family, has made great strides in rebuilding a relationship with his offspring.
El has 12 children, 11 of whom are his biological children and one that he has accepted as his own, by five different women.
In a 2018 interview with Jet magazine, he openly admitted that his 22-year struggle with drug addiction prevented him from being the kind of father that a sober version of himself would have aspired to be. The repercussions of his addiction led to one of his children, then just 3 years old, being removed from his and the mother’s custody and placed in the system. “I don’t know where she is,” he lamented, suspecting that she may have been adopted.
Now, clean and sober, he said he is aiming to be the best dad he can be and will never abandon his children again.
“I intend to be in their lives forever,” he said. “God gave me a second chance. I am so very glad with what is going on with my career, but I want to be a success in my relationship with my children.”
