Helen Folasade Adu, known professionally as Sade Adu, is a Nigerian-born British singer and songwriter who is the lead vocalist of her band Sade. Born on 16 January 1959 in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, her middle name, Folasade, means "crowned with wealth" in Yoruba.
Sade Adu performing in 2011
Her parents, Adebisi Adu, a Nigerian lecturer in economics of Yoruba background from Ikere-Ekiti, and Anne Hayes, an English district nurse, met in London, married in 1955, and moved to Nigeria. Sade was four years old when her parents separated and was brought up in England from the age of four.
Early Career and Formation of the Band Sade
After completing a three-year course in fashion design, and later modelling briefly, Sade began backup singing with British band Pride. During this time, she formed a songwriting partnership with Pride's guitarist/saxophonist Stuart Matthewman; together, backed by Pride's rhythm section, they began doing their own sets at Pride gigs. Her solo performances of the song "Smooth Operator", co-written with Ray St. John, attracted record companies' attention, and in 1983 Sade and Matthewman split from Pride, along with keyboardist Andrew Hale, bassist Paul Denman, and drummer Paul Cook, to form the band Sade.
By the time she performed her first show at London's Heaven nightclub, she had become so popular that 1,000 people were turned away at the door. In May 1983, Sade performed her first US show at New York City's Danceteria nightclub. On 18 October 1983, Sade Adu signed with Epic Records.
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Breakthrough with Diamond Life
Following the record deal, the group began recording their debut album, Diamond Life, which took six weeks to record and was recorded entirely at The Power Plant in London. Diamond Life was released on 16 July 1984, reached number two in the UK Album Chart, sold over 1.2 million copies in the UK, and won the Brit Award for Best British Album in 1985. The album was also a hit internationally, reaching number one in several countries and the top ten in the US, where it sold in excess of four million copies.
"Your Love Is King" was released as the album's lead single on 25 February 1984 and was a success in European territories, charting at number seven in Ireland and number six on the UK Singles Chart. The third single, "Smooth Operator", was released on 15 September 1984 and became the most successful song in the US from the album Diamond Life.
Sade - Smooth Operator (Official Video), Full HD (Digitally Remastered and Upscaled)
Continued Success and Grammy Award
In late 1985, the band released their second album, Promise, which peaked at number one in both the UK and the US and became the band's first album to reach number one on the US Billboard 200. In 1986, Sade made her acting debut in Absolute Beginners, a film adapted from the Colin MacInnes book of the same name about life in late-1950s London.
Love Deluxe was released as the band's fourth studio album on 26 October 1992. The album peaked at number three on the US Billboard 200 and has sold 3.4 million copies in the United States. The album was later certified four times platinum by the RIAA for shipments of four million copies. The album was also commercially successful elsewhere, reaching number one in France, and reaching the top ten in New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. In November 1994, the group released their first compilation album, The Best of Sade.
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On 27 February 2002, the album Lovers Rock earned Sade the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album, and the lead single "By Your Side" was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. To promote the album, Sade and the band embarked on their fifth concert tour entitled Lovers Rock Tour.
Following the release of Lovers Rock, Sade took a ten-year hiatus, during which she raised her child and moved to the Caribbean. During this time, she made a rare public appearance for an award ceremony that took place in 2002 to accept an Order of the British Empire (OBE) at Buckingham Palace for services to music. The band's sixth studio album, Soldier of Love, was released worldwide on 8 February 2010, and was their first album in ten years to contain new material.
In April 2011, the band began their Sade Live tour (also known as the "Once in a Lifetime Tour" or the "Soldier of Love Tour"). The band toured Europe, the Americas, Australia and Asia to promote the band's sixth studio album and their second compilation album, The Ultimate Collection (2011). In March 2018, she (and the reunited Sade band) released the acoustic ballad "Flower of the Universe" for the soundtrack to the Disney film A Wrinkle in Time. Later that year, Sade released "The Big Unknown" for the soundtrack to the 20th Century Fox film Widows.
Legacy and Influence
The New Yorker described Sade's voice as a "grainy contralto full of air that betrays a slight ache but no agony, and values even imperfect dignity over a show of pain", a "deeply English" quality that makes categorising the artist's voice difficult. Her voice was described by the BBC as "husky and restrained" and compared to singer Billie Holiday. BBC called her songwriting "sufficiently soulful and jazzy yet poppy, funky yet easy listening, to appeal to fans of all those genres." Sade has been called a "pop star".
Her success has been attributed to a combination of her unique beauty, seemingly indefinable origins, and mysterious persona. Sade's work has influenced and been recognised by many singers and hip hop artists. In reaction to the newly released album Soldier of Love, rapper Kanye West wrote, "This is why i still have a blog. To be a part of moments like this ... new Sade ... How much better this ... than everything else?".
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Personal Life
Sade squatted in Tottenham in the 1980s, with her then-boyfriend Robert Elms. In 1989, she married Spanish film director Carlos Pliego. Their marriage ended in 1995. Sade moved briefly to the Caribbean to live with Jamaican music producer Bob Morgan in the late 1990s and gave birth on 21 July 1996 to her first child, who later sang on Sade's song "Babyfather" in 2010. Sade and Morgan separated, and she has been in a relationship with Ian Watts, a former Royal Marine, since 2007; from this relationship, she has a stepson. In 2005, Sade moved to a village in the Gloucestershire countryside, where she bought a run-down cottage to renovate.
Honors and Recognition
Sade was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2002 for services to music, and stated her award was "a great gesture to me and all black women in England". She was promoted to Commander of the same Order (CBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours, also for services to music. In 1986, she became the first Nigerian-born artist to win a Grammy Award when she was named Best New Artist.
African Artists at the Grammys: A Growing Legacy
At the 2024 GRAMMYs, five nominees are up for the inaugural Best African Music Performance category. Yet this is not the first time African artists have been highlighted at Music's Biggest Night - the continent has produced GRAMMY winners since the ‘60s. African musicians have been taking home golden gramophones since the 1960s, when South African Miriam Makeba won Best Folk Album for her duo with Harry Belafonte.
Here's a look at some other notable African Grammy winners:
- Miriam Makeba: Before singer Mariam Makeba won a GRAMMY for An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba, a collaborative record with her mentor Harry Belafonte, an African artist had never won a thing at the GRAMMYs.
- Ali Farka Touré: His pioneering sound would bring him two GRAMMYs for Best World Music Album in his lifetime, the first in 1994 for the collaborative record Talking Timbuktu with Ry Cooder, and the second in 2005 for In the Heart of the Moon.
- Youssou N’Dour: But in 2005, he made history as Senegal’s first GRAMMY winner. N’Dour had been nominated three times for Best World Album and once for Best Contemporary World Music Album, finally winning the latter category that year for his album Egypt.
- Angélique Kidjo: is the most GRAMMY-winning African musician in history. Her five trophies - starting in 2008 with a Best Contemporary World Music Album for Djin Djin - include three Best World Music Album wins and, most recently, a Best Global Music Album award for Mother Nature, which featured collaborations with Burna Boy, Mr.
- Tinariwen: Just a year after Ali Farka Touré earned his final, posthumous GRAMMY, the desert blues band Tinariwen earned their first: Best World Music Album for their LP Tassili.
- Black Coffee: Before Black Coffee’s album Subconsiously won Best Dance/Electronic Album at the the 2022 GRAMMYs - the first African to win the category for an original project.
Femi Kuti, King Sunny Adé, Babatunde Olatunji, and his rival WizKid had all received GRAMMY nods before Burna Boy became the first Nigerian male artist to grab a golden gramophone for an original work.
At the 66th GRAMMY Awards, Burna Boy has gathered four nominations - a career record. His "City Boys" is nominated in the first-ever Best African Music Performance category.
The inclusion of the Best African Music Performance category at the GRAMMYs marks a significant step forward in recognizing the diverse and rich musical landscape of Africa. As more African artists gain international recognition, the future of African music at the GRAMMYs looks brighter than ever.
