Sade

At 65 years old, Sade has this physical status:

Helen Folasade Adu (born 16 January 1959) is a British Nigerian singer, songwriter, and actress best known as the lead singer of her eponymous band's lead singer. Born in Ibadan, Nigeria, and bred up in Essex, England, Sade gained modest fame as a fashion designer and part-time actor before joining the band Pride in the 1980s.

She formed the band Sade and signed a Epic Records contract in 1983 after gaining fame as a performer.

A year later, the band released Diamond Life, one of the best-selling albums of the decade, as well as the best-selling debut by a British female vocalist.

It also received widespread critical acclaim, and it was included in 1001 Albums You Must Read Before You Die.

Sade was one of the Live Aid charity concert at Wembley Stadium in July 1985.

Promise, the band's first album to debut atop the Billboard 200 in late 1985, became a hugely popular critical and commercial success, gracing the UK Albums Chart and gaining the band's first album to debut atop the Billboard 200.

Early life

Helen Folasade Adu was born in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, on January 16, 1959, but she is a native of Ekiti State. Folasade, her middle name, means "honor inherits the throne." Adebisi Adu, a Nigerian lecturer with a Yoruba history, and Anne Hayes, an English district nurse, married in London and moved to Nigeria. Sade's parents divorced when she was four years old. Anne Hayes returned to England, taking Sade and her elder brother Banji with them to live with their grandparents near Colchester, Essex. Sade was 11 years old and moved to Holland-on-Sea, Essex, to live with her mother. She travelled to London and studied fashion design at Saint Martin's School of Art after finishing her education at Clacton County High School and Colchester Institute at the age of 18.

Personal life

Sade and her boyfriend Robert Elms were squatting in Tottenham in the 1980s. In 1989, she married Spanish film director Carlos Pliego. Their marriage took place in 1995. Sade moved to Jamaica to work with Jamaican music producer Bob Morgan in the late 1990s and gave birth on July 21, 1996. The child was raised as a child and appeared on Sade's "Babyfather" in 2010. Sade and Morgan later split, but she has been in a relationship with Ian Watts, a former Royal Marine, since 2007; from this marriage, she has a stepson. Sade's child was born as a transgender man named Izaak Theo Adu on National Coming Out Day in 2016. Izaak wrote a letter online thanking his mother for his help during his pregnancy.

Sade moved to the Gloucestershire countryside in 2005, where she bought a run-down cottage to renovate. Sade rarely gives interviews.

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Career

Sade began performing with British band Pride after completing a three-year course in fashion design and then modeling for a short time. She formed a songwriting collaboration with Pride's guitarist/saxophonist Stuart Matthewman, who was backed by Pride's rhythm section, and they began performing their own sets at Pride gigs. "Smooth Operator"'s solo performances at record shops attracted the attention of record companies, and Sade and Matthewman, keyboardist Andrew Hale, bassist Paul Denman, and drummer Paul Cook split from Pride in 1983, to form Sade. By the time she appeared at London's Heaven nightclub for the first time, she had become so popular that 1,000 people were turned away at the door. Sade performed their first US show at the Danceteria nightclub in New York City in May 1983. Sade Adu left Epic Records on October 18, 1983, while the rest of the band formed in 1984.

Following the record contract, the group began recording Diamond Life, which took six weeks to record and was entirely at The Power Plant in London. Diamond Life was published on July 16, 1984, debuted number two in the UK Album Chart, has sold over 1.2 million copies in the United Kingdom, and has been named Best British Album in 1985. The album was also a hit around the world, debuting at number one in several countries and the top ten in the United States, where it has sold in excess of four million copies. Diamond Life's international sales hit more than six million copies, making it one of the top-selling debuts of the 1980s and the best-selling debut by a British female vocalist ever.

On February 25, 1984, "Your Love Is King" was introduced as the album's lead single, charting at number seven in Ireland and number six on the UK Singles Chart, with a success in European territories. The song was less popular in the United States, where it peaked at number 54 on the US Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at number 54. "Smooth Operator," the album's third single, was released on September 15, 1984, and it became the most popular song in the United States from the album Diamond Life. The track debuted at number five on the US Billboard Hot 100 and the US Billboard Hot Black Singles, as well as debuting at number one on the US Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. The song fared well in Europe, peaking at number 19 in the United Kingdom and achieving the top 20 in Austria, Switzerland, France, and Germany.

Promise, the band's second album, which reached number one in both the UK and the US, and became the band's first album to debut top-one on the US Billboard 200 in late 1985. In 1986, the album debuted at number one on the charts and spent two weeks at the top of the charts. The album eventually went platinum, and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) acknowledged it four times platinum (RIAA). The album released two singles, "Never as Good as the First Time" and "The Sweetest Taboo," the latter of which was released as the album's lead single and remained on the US Hot 100 for six months. "The Sweetest Taboo" reached number five on the US Billboard Hot 100, number one on the US Adult Contemporary chart, and number three on the US Hot R&B/Hip Singles & Tracks chart. Sade was so popular that some radio stations revived the '70s trend of playing album tracks, adding "Is It A Crime" and "Tar Baby" to their playlists. The band received the Grammy Award for Best New Artist the following year.

Sade made her acting debut in Absolute Beginners, a film based on Colin MacInnes' book of the same name about life in late-1950s London. Sade played Athene Duncannon and lent her vocals to the film's accompanying soundtrack. The film was shown out of competition at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival and grossed £1.8 million in the United Kingdom. Stronger Than Pride, Sade's third album, was released on May 3rd, 1988, and it became a commercial hit and was certified three times platinum in the United States. Four singles followed the album, most notable of which was the album's second single "Paradise," which debuted at number 16 on the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs and peaked at number one on the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Songs, becoming the band's first single to do so.

On October 26, 1992, Love Deluxe became the band's fourth studio album. The album debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200 and has sold 3.4 million copies in the United States. The album was later rated platinum by the Royal Institute of British Agricultural Association for four million copies. The album was also highly profitable elsewhere, debuting at number one in France and achieving the top ten in New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom, the album was also rated gold. The group's first compilation album, The Best of Sade, was released in November 1994. The album was another top ten hit in both the United Kingdom and the United States, rated platinum and four times platinum, respectively. The compilation album contained tracks from Sade's previous albums as well as a cover version of "Please Send Me Some Love" (1950), which was originally written by Percy Mayfield.

Following an eight-year absence, the band unveiled Lovers Rock, their fifth studio album, on November 13, 2000, and music critics applauded it. The album debuted at number 18 on the UK Albums Chart, number three on the US Billboard 200, and has since been named triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), having sold 3.9 million copies in the United States by February 2010. Sade received the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album on February 27, 2002, and the album's lead single "By Your Side" was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Despite the fact that the single lost out on Nelly Furtado's "I'm Like a Bird," it has been ranked as the 48th best love song of all time by VH1.

Sade and the band embarked on their fifth concert tour, Lovers Rock Tour, to promote the album. In April 2001, the tour was announced on the band's website. With 30 shows, the tour will begin in the summer of 2001. Due to a longer rehearsal time, the initial dates were postponed. The shows were extremely popular, with several shows having to be postponed. The tour was postponed for eight weeks due to ticket sales in August 2001. It was praised by several commentators as a comeback tour, and it took place in 2001. Although many believed the trek would continue to other nations, this did not happen. It was the 13th biggest tour in North America, with over 40 shows on offer, earning more than $26 million.

Following the tour, the band released Lovers Live, Epic Records' first live album on February 5, 2002. Lovers Live's first album to finish outside the top ten on the US Billboard 200 and number 51 on the UK Albums Chart, the band's first album to debut in the UK top ten, No. ten on the UK Billboard 200 and number 51. The album was rated gold by the RIAA on March 7, 2002, after it had sold 52,000 copies in the United States, while the DVD was released platinum on 30 January 2003 for 100,000 copies.

Sade returned to the Caribbean after the unveiling of Lovers Rock. During this period, she made a rare public appearance at a 2002 awards dinner to receive an Order of the British Empire (OBE) at Buckingham Palace for services to music. She appeared on Red Hot Organization's album, Red Hot + Riot, in honor of fellow Nigerian musician Fela Kuti's music in 2002. She produced a remix of her hit song "By Your Side" for the album and was billed as a co-producer.

Soldier of Love, the band's sixth studio album, was released worldwide on February 8, 2010, and the band's first album in ten years to have fresh music. Since its debut, the album received rave reviews and became a hit. With first-week sales of 502,000 copies, the album debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 in the United States. Soldier of Love was the band's first album to debut at number one and the band's second album to debut at number one on the charts. The album also had the best sales week for a group since Australian band AC/DC released their album Black Ice and debuted the Billboard 200 at number one in November 2008. As a result of the band's Promise (1985) and Soldier of Love's separation, the band became the act with the longest time between number one albums.

On December 8, 2009, the first single and title track, "Soldier of Love," debuted on US radio and was released digitally on January 11, 2010. On both "Babyfather" and "The Moon and the Sky," two of the sub-titles of "Babyfather" and "The Moon and the Sky," were played by US urban adult contemporary radio on April 13th and August 2010. The title track received Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2011, while "Babyfather" was nominated for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

The band's Sade Live tour began in April 2011 (also known as the "Once in a Lifetime Tour" or the "Soldier of Love Tour)). The band performed in Europe, Americas, Australia, and Asia to promote their sixth studio album and their second compilation album, The Ultimate Collection (2011). This tour was the band's first tour in nearly a decade and ranked 27th in Pollstar's "Top 50 Worldwide Tour (Mid-Year)," grossing more than $20 million. The tour debuted tenth on Billboard's annual "Top 25 Tours" in 2011, grossing over $5 million with 59 shows. Until May 2012, the tour was chronicled with Bring Me Home - Live 2011.

The acoustic ballad "Flower of the Universe" from her soundtrack to Disney's A Wrinkle In Time was released in March 2018. She (and the reunited band that also bears her name) performed "Flower of the Universe" on the soundtrack. "I never thought she'd say yes, but asked anyway." director Ava DuVernay wrote about Sade's request to contribute to the album. Sade released "The Big Unknown" for the soundtrack to the twentieth century Fox film Widows later this year. Sade decided to write the song for the film because "the original series of Widows had a deep connection with her." The film's producer, Steve McQueen, said. Soldier of Love's replacement is currently on the way. The band was the first to record their seventh album at Miraval Studios, where they had previously released Promise and Stronger Than Pride.

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