He was!
My oldest cousin Reena was a monster Debarge fan. She told me the story of watching this with her dad, my Uncle Teddy, who is crazy as a mug. She says as soon as Debarge came out and El started singing, my uncle sat up and said, "When did Motown start signing Puerto Ricans?" Pure ignorance, but that is my uncle. I will say, that based on that appearance, if I didn't know better, I would have thought El was Latino.

He was!
My oldest cousin Reena was a monster Debarge fan. She told me the story of watching this with her dad, my Uncle Teddy, who is crazy as a mug. She says as soon as Debarge came out and El started singing, my uncle sat up and said, "When did Motown start signing Puerto Ricans?" Pure ignorance, but that is my uncle. I will say, that based on that appearance, if I didn't know better, I would have thought El was Latino.

scriptgirl said:

Until the Vibe article, I didn't know what their nationality was. The name "Debarge" really threw me off too

Not sure whatever happened to High Energy.

To me, El looks Latino, or either creole or just plain mixed. So do James, Bobby and Chico. Either way the Debarges have a very distinct look.

I agree that El has magnetism, but I think he only really had it in the context of the group. I think he floundered a bit when he went solo.

Whatever happened to High Energy? Did they ever release any videos or an album because I just remember seeing them on Motown 25 and that was it!

scriptgirl said:

Now him looking mixed I can see, but I never thought he was Hispanic, that's all I'm saying.

He floundered a bit in the beginning because he probably didn't have total confidence on his own than he did when he was on stage with his siblings, but if you look at more recent performances of him, El has more confidence. I don't care what anyone says I think El could've had more of a successful musical career if he was promoted better, IMO.

It seems to me High Inergy were supposed to be the Emotions 2.0. Were the Emotions on Motown?

Anyhoo, in the mid-90s, I found a box of my cousin Reena's Debarge memoribilia and I found a mag that had an interview with the Debarge mom-it may have been the late, great Rock and Soul-it was dated from '85 and she talked about meeting her husband, who is white, at a roller skating rink. So it did come out in the h 80s that they were half black and half white.

The Debarge surname never threw me off, because I know a lot of black people have French surnames. To me, in singing, sometimes Bobby and El have latino cadence in their voice-I am not putting it right, but that is how it seems to me.

El was not promoted well at all and it is sad. He could have been a huge RnB artist. He had the looks and more talent than most.

Their dad is not French Canadian. He is from Illinois and is French and Irish. The Debarges did have a Puerto Rican stepdad, who gave Chico his nickname. Chico's real name is Jonathan.

It boggles my mind that as popular as Debarge were, they are sadly forgotten now.
[Edited 2/28/09 18:58pm]

Didn't work.
I think the Debarges performed after MJ.

scriptgirl said:

Nah, they performed before The Jackson 5ive. If I remember correctly, they went on after Adam Ant

bboy87 said:

The came on after the J5. I need to find my VHS, ain't watched this in eons.

bboy87 said:

The came on after the J5. I need to find my VHS, ain't watched this in eons.

I wonder what the video set list look like.

Marvin must've appeared either before or after the Jacksons/DeBarge...

I know The Supremes came last, lol.

Timmy84 said:

Marvin came right after the Jacksons, then DeBarge/High Energy