Bunny DeBarge

Etterlene "Bunny" DeBarge (born March 15, 1955) is an African American soul singer-songwriter, best known as the lone female sibling of the Motown family group, DeBarge. She is also best known as the lead vocalist behind the classic R&B ballad, "A Dream" from the group's "In a Special Way" album and is also the co-writer of the group's 1982 breakthrough hit, "I Like It" and the number-one hit, "Time Will Reveal.

Overview

Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan to Robert DeBarge, Sr. and Etterlene Abney, Bunny was the eldest of the ten DeBarge children, which included brothers Bobby and El. Singing in church from an early age, Bunny sings in the high soprano vocal style.

In 1979, Bunny and her three brothers El, Mark and Randy held an impromptu audition for Motown Records outside Berry Gordy's offices. Gordy signed the group and released their first album that year. Within a year, the group began to find success with songs such as "I Like It" and "All This Love", all the while Bunny stayed in the background.

Bunny began to break out in the group's third album, "In a Special Way" where she penned the classic, "Time Will Reveal". Bunny sung on the last song of the album, a song she penned herself titled "A Dream".

Bunny would later say that the demanding schedules of a successful music career pushed her to do hard drugs. After splitting from the group in 1986, Bunny released her first and only solo album, "In Love", which included the single, "Save the Best for Me (Best of Your Lovin')", and then retired from show business shortly after to deal with a prescription drug addiction, which she eventually overcame in the mid-nineties.

Within those years, Bunny became a born-again Christian and began to rebuild her life as a member of the church back at her home in Grand Rapids. In recent years, she has recorded mainly gospel music and has penned an autobiography, "The Kept Ones", about her life and career.

Discography

1986: "In Love"