El DeBarge to ring in 2026 at Blue Note L.A.

The R&B legend talks about his New Year's Eve show and why he never plans to retire.

- BY STEVE BALTIN

Photo from Corey Rooney Media

EL DEBARGE will perform with a band to welcome 2026 at Blue Note Los Angeles on Wednesday night. He hopes to honor victims of January's fires.

When the Hollywood location of the Blue Note first opened, it was during difficult times.

Like almost all of L.A., the venue was affected by the January wildfires, and a March opening was pushed back to August.

However, since the SoCal location of the beloved jazz club franchise opened its doors, it has kicked off with a memorable run of sold-out shows and iconic moments, like Stevie Wonder joining Robert Glasper on stage Dec. 21. So, given all that has transpired in this unique opening year of 2025, the team at Blue Note knew their first New Year's Eve show had to be noteworthy.

On Wednesday, L.A. resident and R&B legend El DeBarge will perform at the club to ring in 2026.

The Times recently spoke with DeBarge about his relationship with jazz, why he'll never retire and why he loves playing NYE shows.

We're talking about your New Year's show at Blue Note. Will it be with the full band?

The New Year show at the Blue Note in Los Angeles will [be with] half of my band. The place is kind of small but it's just a great powerful place. I sat in with Robert Glasper at the New York location and I'm very honored to do the Blue Note again.

It's a very big deal because this is the club's first New Year's Eve in L.A. How do you approach it and is it special for you to be first?