Q You were on Twitter five minutes before your Glamorama performance.

A I know, I’ve become addicted. It’s a great way to stay connected with fans. I called five of them last night!

Q How long did it take you to get into those skintight leather pants you wore on stage?

A Like two seconds.

Q Good to be young. So who put together what you’re wearing now?

A I did. It’s a Bebe dress and jacket and Steve Madden shoes that I bought today at the Mall of America.

Q Adorable. But so … common. I’d have thought you’d be wearing Jimmy Choo and Christian Louboutin now that you have a song on the radio.

A I have a passion for clothes girls my age can wear. I want to be relatable. Actually, I really want to be Steve Madden’s girl (in ads). My management is trying to work that out.

Q So what is it like to hang out with Britney Spears?

A I haven’t actually met heryet! But I’m so excited. I think I’ll ask her, like, when times are tough … what do you do?
Q You’ll probably meet K-Fed too.

A Who?

Q Kevin Federline, Britney’s ex.

A Are they back together?

Q No, no — but according to UsWeekly, he travels with her on tour to help with the boys.

A That is so great that she has her kids nearby.

Q You must get this all the time, but I have to ask: What’s your favorite DeBarge song?

A “Who’s Holding Donna Now?” But it changes every day.

Q So it’s probably pretty cliché to say mine is “Rhythm of the Night?”

A It is.

– Twincities

Stick around today and this week for tons of updates, content and an exclusive from Kristinia!

“I don’t really know anything else besides singing,” said the daughter of James DeBarge, the keyboardist of the 1980s Motown group DeBarge and ex-husband of Janet Jackson.

“I had a pretty normal life, except that my family just sang a lot. So I was always in the house and I was always hearing them on the piano or the drums or the guitar, or they were writing a song. My father always took me in the studio, with him or on tour … and after a while it just became like second nature to me,” said DeBarge (whose first name is pronounced kris-teh-NEE’-ah).

The group DeBarge — which featured five of the DeBarge siblings, with El as its lead singer — hit it big back in the 1980s with No. 1 hits like “Time Will Reveal” and “Rhythm of the Night.” Their smooth grooves were given new life over the years thanks to artists like the Notorious B.I.G., 2Pac and Ashanti using the group’s melodies as the main hooks for their songs.

But instead of singing the sultry soul and R&B her family members delivered years back, DeBarge is ready to take over the pop world with her debut CD, “Exposed,” released this week. She’s opening up for the Britney Spears tour next month and her first single “Goodbye,” which samples Steam’s 1969 hit “Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye),” is a Top 40 hit on the Billboard pop chart.

The song has even drawn comparisons to Rihanna, but DeBarge says she doesn’t mind since she is a fan of the singer.

“I love Rihanna — I think she has a lot of great music that she’s come out with,” she said.
Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, the Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and producer, signed DeBarge to his new label and oversaw the direction of her album. He also produced “Goodbye.”
Edmonds said the comely singer is more than a pretty face: “She actually has a voice. She can really sing,” he said in a phone interview.

“I think when you have a family history that’s in music and that runs in their blood, sometimes what comes with that is a natural instinct in terms of performing,” he said.

“Exposed” finds DeBarge working as a songwriter too; she co-wrote the track “Cried Me a River” and “It’s Gotta Be Love,” which samples LL Cool J’s 1996 song, “I Need Love.”

“Of course I’m not going to be able to write all the songs on the album this time,” she said. But she added she has faith that she “can really write maybe my whole album one day.”

While DeBarge tries to carve out her own space in the musical universe — like her family did almost three decades ago — she says she’s never worried that her family’s famous name will overshadow her.

“I’m more excited about it because I do have this last name and it is in my favor and I can use it to a great degree,” she said. “So I look at it more as a blessing.”

The 19-year-old daughter of James DeBarge, of ’80s R&B group DeBarge, she grew up around the business and teamed up with hit maker Babyface five years ago to start planning her debut.

“Exposed” (SodaPop/Island Def Jam) is the result of all that work, featuring her light, effortless vocals tackling a lot of sweet, pretty pop - much of which was written and/or produced by Babyface. No wonder it all seems pretty inevitable.

DeBarge comes across as a streetwise Jordin Sparks with the stomping smash “Goodbye” and the new, more dance-oriented Rihanna-esque single “Sabotage.” But what really sets her apart are the first-rate ballads that she flutters across, from the lovelorn “Disconnect,” which anyone from Miley Cyrus to Whitney Houston would have fought to get on their albums, to the simple, quirky piano ballad “Doesn’t Everybody Want to Fall in Love” that is also destined to be a smash. She even makes the tender, almost sappy “Died in Your Eyes” work for her.

“Exposed” really does unveil DeBarge, who’s set to open for Britney Spears this fall, as a complete package and a music marketer’s dream - a teenager who can sing grown-up songs and make them feel young, and feel comfortable with everything from hip-hop to Celine Dion ballads. Her wait to break into the public eye is about to be so totally worth it.

GRADE B+

BOTTOM LINE A new, non-Disney(!) teen pop queen entry