"Oooh and I like it..." is one of my favorite songs from classic, family group DeBarge.  Now, the founding member James DeBarge's little girl is making her mark.  The budding career of 19-year old star Kristinia DeBarge is off to an explosive start with “Goodbye,” her first single from her debut release EXPOSED, out July 28^th.   Now Kristinia takes a giant step forward with the announcement that she will be joining the third leg of Britney Spears’ The Circus Tour, named “the highest-grossing tour of 2009 so far” by Billboard.  The Circus Tour’s return round of North American dates will hit 20 cities beginning August 20-21^st in Hamilton and Ottawa, Ontario, respectively, concluding September 26-27^th at Mandalay Bay Events in Las Vegas.

“Joining Britney Spears for her Circus tour will be an amazing and surreal experience for me,” said Kristinia.  “I have been dreaming of an opportunity like this forever, and can’t wait.”

Kristinia’s career got off to an impressive start with the April release of “Goodbye.”  “Goodbye” won immediate adds in major market radio stations across the country and is currently at #13 on the Pop Radio airplay chart.  The track has sold more than 500,000 units to date, and broke inside the Top 10 on the iTunes chart. Kristinia performed the single twice thus far on national television: on So You Think You Can Dance (FOX) on June 18th and on Live With Regis and Kelly (ABC) on June 30th. The next single is “Future Love,” written by Ryan Tedder (Jennifer Hudson, Natasha Bedingfield), which impacts radio on July 20^th.

“Goodbye” was quickly licensed by Nivea as the theme song for their latest network TV campaign, with 15 second spots running through mid-July.  The video shoot in Los Angeles captured the song’s sexy fun feel, and the clip has been added at MTV, FUSE, and The N (Nickelodeon’s 24-hour network for teens).  “Goodbye” was co-produced by Babyface and The Pentagon.  Babyface went on to write and produce many of the tracks on EXPOSED. 

Kristinia DeBarge carries on the tradition of her father James DeBarge, keyboardist and founding member of beloved Motown ’80s group DeBarge.  Kristinia knew she wanted to be a singer at age three, but didn’t reveal her wishes to her family until she was twelve.  At that point her father took Kristinia into the recording studio and tested her commitment on “How I Feel Inside,” a duet.  “Our session ended at 4 a.m.,” Kristinia recalls, “and my dad asked me after all those hours and after all that work if I still wanted to do this.  I answered yes, and that’s how he knew I was serious about being a singer.”  Two years later at age 14, Kristinia met Babyface and began a five-year association that led to her signing with SodaPop the day before she reached age 19.

SodaPop Music is a full-scale label start-up for Babyface, one of his first since his LaFace Records (home of Toni Braxton, OutKast, TLC, and Usher), the wildly successful label co-founded in 1989 by Babyface and Antonio ‘L.A.’ Reid, who today is Chairman, Island Def Jam Music Group.   Also, co-founder Jeff Burroughs heads Sodapop Music after serving in senior executive positions over the past decade at RCA Music Group and as Executive Vice President of P. Diddy’s Bad Boy Entertainment.