Posted: Wed 16 Nov 2005 17:08 Post subject: entertainer Sade aka Helen Folasade Adu
helen folasade adu was born in oyo, nigeria on 16 january 1959. her father, adebisi adu was an economics professor and her mother, anne hayes, was a nurse. the two met and fell in love in london, england. once married, the two began to start a family, with the birth of their son, banji. after moving to ibadan, their daughter, helen, was born. the victim of racism, a bi-racial helen was dubbed sade by nigerian neighbors who refused to call her by her first name. when sade was just four, her parents separated and both sade and banji accompanied their mother back to her native england. after a short stint with anne's parents, in essex, the three moved to holland-on-sea and anne remarried. once again, sade and her brother became easy targets in a neighborhood that did not have many residents of african heritage, let alone of mixed heritage. in spite of the childhood taunts, however, sade managed to enjoy a happy childhood, seeking solace in dance and the music of divas such as aretha franklin, nina simone and billie holiday.
during adolescence, sade developed a passion for fashion—a fact that would later become apparent to an entire generation of mtv viewers—resulting in her pursuing course work at st. martin's college. working her way through school as a bicycle messanger and waitress, sade eventually earned her degree and launched a men's clothing line with one of her peers. though the duo enjoyed some success designing clothes for up-and-coming artists, such as spandau ballet, sade became disillusioned with the commercialism and instability of the fashion industry and eventually gave it up. in the wake of her fashion venture, sade took up modeling and appeared on several magazine covers before deciding that, too, was not for her.
sade's introduction to music came in 1980, when she auditioned for a latin ensemble called arriva. though her tenure with the group was short-lived, a collaboration with a fellow band member produced "smooth operator"…a song that would figure prominently in the young singer's career. a year after her arriva audition, sade found herself auditioning for another group called pride. though she initially failed the auditon, she later accepted an invitation to join when the group found that they had no candidate who was more qualified. beginning her association with the group as a background vocalist, it wasn't long before sade was collaborating with saxophonist stweart matthewman and wowing crowds with her captivating performances as the band's frontwoman. after a year without securring a recording contract, pride disbanded leaving sade, once again, without a band. she did, however, score a manager in lee barrett, who had previously managed pride.
in 1983, epic records expressed interest in sade. in an inspired move to bring along her long-time collaborators, sade convinced epic that sade was more than merely her name, but also the name of the group including her, stewart matthewman, andrew hale and paul deman. though the public, at large, would be unaware that sade was anything more than one woman throughout their career, the tactic did succeed in obtaining a contract for the entire band. the group's first album, diamond life, was released in europe in 1984. originally slated to never be released in the united states, the album's european success eventually pursuaded label executives to give it a go in the states, with startling results. by the time the album was released in the u.s., it was already on it's second single, "smooth operator", and american response could not have been more positive. in the midst of the pop-laden 80s, sade was a rare blend of actual talent and video-friendly imaging, causing diamond life to spend a phenomenal eighty-one weeks on the charts. accepting the title of 1985's best new artist at the grammy awards and best album at the phonographic institute with sophisticated elegance, sade was dubbed by the media "the first lady of cool".
sade spent that year promoting diamond life, both in europe and abroad, while simultaneously preparting their second offering, promise. recorded in both london and the south of france, sade's sophomore release delivered on the unspoken promise to consistently maintain a level of quality that, in the 1980s, was perhaps matched only by annie lennox and dave stewart's eurythmics. though cuts like "the sweetest taboo" and "never as good as the first time" found their way into the chart's top ten, it was "is it a crime" and "jezebel" that earned themselves a secure place in the hearts of die-hard sade fans who delight in the maturity, simplicity and beauty. eight months of touring accompanied the release of promise, but that didn't precule sade from pursuing other endeavors, such as performing at a myriad of benefit concerts. 1985 also found sade making a cameo in julien temple's musical film absolute beginners; sade performed the song "killer blow", which appeared on the album's soundtrack, but has not made its way on to any of her releases.
though sade may have been sitting on top of the world, with two successful albums under her belt and a devoted following, fame never comes without a price, especially for a camera-friendly diva who happens to share her homeland with the world's most agressive tabloid journalists. beautiful and reluctant to relinquish her privacy, sade was a perfect target for a press who earn their living trading in sleaze. in order to spend her hiatus between albums in relative peace, sade moved to spain. sade dismisses accusations that she's a reclusive diva, "i'm a diva, of course, but i'm not shy or reclusive. i just spend my time with people rather than journalists." to that end, sade rarely grants interviews. instead, she spent the time that other artist would have spent pandering to a fickle media getting to know spanish documentary filmmaker, carlos scola. the two fell in love and, for a time, sade adu had her music, her privacy and the love of a good man.
in 1988, sade released their first entirely self-produced album, stronger than pride. again, the group hit the top ten with "nothing can come between us" and the rest of the year was spent touring in support of the new album. upon the conclusion of their first stint headlining a stadium tour, sade moved to madrid and she and scola were married on 11 october 1989. the marriage, however, did not last longer and sade returned to london, where she bought and restored a home, complete with a recording studio. it was here that adu and her fellow band members would work on what would be their fourth studio album, love deluxe. released in november of 1992, love deluxe became an instant hit. songs like "cherish the day", "i couldn't love you more" and "pearls" were classic sade, dressed up for the 90s. it was "ordinary love", however, that ruled the charts for months. included in the indecent proposal soundtrack and accompanied by a captivating video that depicted sade as a love-struck mermaid, "ordinary love" lives on as one of the most memorable songs of the decade. love deluxe's smooth blend of intelligent lyrics and intoxicating grooves, also made it one of the 90s most popular albums for establishing a romantic mood, resulting in sales of over four million copies in the united states alone.
exactly two years later, the best of sade was released, acheiving similar sales success. by this time, the somewhat reclusive diva had retreated to ocho rios, jamaica, where she lived with boyfriend and producer, bob morgan. the two celebrated the birth of their daughter, ila, on 21 july 1996. in 1997, sade returned to england to tour on the strength of her four studio albums, which have sold some thirty million copies worldwide. rumors also had it that sade has entered the studio to record a new album, a fact which made her fans in a quiet frenzy. fans would have to wait three more years before the release of lover's rock a collection of introspective and meaningful songs which benefit from the band's eight-year hiatus from performing as sade without diverging too far from the formula that has earned them one of the most dedicated following's in the music industry.
emerging in the 1980s from a sea of plastic pop pin-up girls, sade blended heretofore disparate styles of music with grace, poise and beauty, quickly identifying her as a diva in the first degree. possessing a cool elegance and shrouded in mystery, she has managed to remain in the public's conscioussness while only producing an album every several years. sensual without having to pander to the prurient appetite of the public, the possessor of a slow-burning talent and intelligent without question, the artist known as sade has earned herself a place among divas many years her senior.
Sade was born Helen Folesade Adu in Nigeria, the daughter of a Nigerian teacher and an English nurse. Her parents separated when she was four, and she moved with her mother to London's North End. In her teens, she worked a succession of part-time jobs from waitress to bike messenger, yet devoted all of her free time to music, inspired by the likes of Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye and Al Green. Subsequently, Sade studied fashion design at St. Martin's College in London, and even saw some of her work shown in New York in conjunction with Spandau Ballet's first U.S. appearance. But her musical passions quickly overtook her budding fashion career, and soon Sade was performing as one of three vocalists in a promising jazz-funk collective known as Pride.
Early in 1984, Sade reemerged as lead singer and principal songwriter of the group bearing her name, accompanied by her former Pride cohorts Stuart Matthewman (sax and guitar), Andrew Hale (keyboards) and Paul Spencer Denman (bass). Their instrumental and compo- sitional talents brought additional form and color to Sade's words and melodies, providing a solid base for her natural vocal charisma. The team would continue to play and write together for the next decade.
The public got its first taste of Sade's singular style with the 1984 debut single "Your Love Is King," which quickly went Top 10 in the U.K. and Europe. That song's uncontrived adult soulfulness stood in marked contrast to the trendy ephemera dominating the pop charts at the time, and struck an immediate chord with incurable romantics on both sides of the Atlantic. The single's promise was fulfilled in spades when Sade's first album, Diamond Life -- featuring "Your Love Is King" along with the Top Five smash "Smooth Operator" and the followup hit "Hang On to Your Love" -- was released the following year.
Diamond Life, which The New York Times' Stephen Holden called "the year's most impressive debut album," was honored with the British Phonographic Institute's 1985 Best Album award, while Sade took home a Grammy as Best New Artist. The disc spent an amazing 81 weeks on Billboard's album charts, and remains the all-time best-selling debut by a British female singer. Soon after, Sade made her film debut in Julien Temple's Absolute Beginners, performing the song "Killer Blow," which she co-wrote.
Sade's second longplayer, Promise, further established the artist's sensitively sultry vocal approach and seamless musical depth, maintaining and expanding its predecessor's soulful sound and lyrical considerations of love, life and loss. The album, which boasted such stellar tunes as the U.S. Top 5 hit "The Sweetest Taboo," "Never As Good As the First Time," "Jezebel" and "Is It A Crime," moved quickly to the Number One position on the American pop and R&B charts.
Promise's success further established Sade, not particularly willingly, as a much sought- after media figure. After touring for eight months in Europe, the Far East and the U.S. (including a triumphant run at New York's Radio City Music Hall), not to mention benefit shows for Live Aid and the African National Congress, she took a much-needed sabbatical from public life. To escape the glare of publicity, Sade relocated to Madrid, far from the media circus that threatened to overshadow her music. The singer, who rarely does interviews and is seldom spotted in public when she's not actually performing, staunchly resists "the myth that I'm a shy, reclusive diva. I'm a diva, of course. But I'm not shy or reclusive. I just spend my time with people rather than journalists."
The artist emerged from her self-imposed exile with 1988's Stronger Than Pride, the first Sade album to be completely produced and arranged by the vocalist and her band. The album -- featuring songs like "Paradise," "Nothing Can Come Between Us" and "Love Is Stronger Than Pride" -- demonstrated the ongoing vitality of Sade's timeless approach in the face of ever-shifting pop fads, and its commercial success demonstrated that the singer's popularity remained as strong as ever.
Sade spent most of 1988 on the road, playing to packed house in Europe, Australia and Japan. She also embarked upon her first full-scale arena tour of North America. Those shows found the singer and her band performing at new peaks of confidence and intensity. Upon returning from the road, Sade bought and virtually rebuilt an old house in London; there she constructed the basement studio where she and her cohorts would soon map out the themes and directions of her fourth album, Love Deluxe, which continued Sade's unbroken streak of critical and commercial success.
Upon its November 1992 release, Love Deluxewas welcomed as Sade's most adventurous and ambitious effort to date, uncompromising in the emotional honesty and musical integrity of such numbers as "No Ordinary Love," "Kiss of Life," "Like A Tattoo," "Cherish The Day" and "Pearls." In a four-star review, Us magazine praised the album's "spare polyrhythmic flow, and the forthright smarts of Sade's songwriting. She touches raw nerves with silky- smooth vocal finesse, whether her subject is the everyday wear of unemployment, the generalized fear of AIDS or the vagaries of committed romance." Love Deluxe-- which ended up spending a remarkable 90 weeks on the Billboard charts -- was followed by another highly successful touring in the U.S., Europe and Japan; meanwhile, "No Ordinary Love" was featured prominently in the hit movie Indecent Proposal.
Now, the most memorable moments of Sade's first decade of stardom are brought together in one sleek, seamless package. The result is The Best Of Sade: a comprehensive portrait of a one-of-a-kind artist who remains one of popular music's most treasured voices.
lovers rock is the first collection of new work by sade in eight years. but it's a record that says less about those years gone by than the promise and vitality of the here and now. it's an album that's by turns moving, elegiac and beautiful. like the tender, acoustic guitar-driven first single, by your side, a song about the tensile strength of love, it is music stripped back to its essential elements: voice, melody, and meticulously arranged instrumentation. the result is a record of bare, sometimes startling immediacy.
but then helen folasade adu is a woman who has never had anything to hide. born in ibadan, nigeria and raised in colchester, essex, where she moved at 4 after her english mother separated from her nigerian father, she's spent her life trying to do what feels right, honest and true. because by comparison nothing else has seemed as important. when she was growing up, sade would listen to soul artists like curtis mayfield, donny hathaway and marvin gaye. singers uniquely attuned to the complex sensibilities of heartache and hope, who were skilled enough to create from those feelings, something lasting and transcendent. still she didn't think about singing herself. rather, she studied fashion at st martin's art college, only signing on as vocalist when a couple of old school friends started a band "until they found a proper singer". from there to singing with early eighties latin funk collective pride, she discovered a rare delight in songwriting. it was while she was with that group that she wrote smooth operator, and it was from there that sade abandoned diffidence and finally stepped centre stage to form her own group with fellow pride members stuart matthewman, andrew hale and paul spencer denman. in 1984 their first single your love is king became a top ten hit. and quite abruptly sade herself became an icon. if during the eighties, she seemed to embody newly discovered values of aspiration and elegance, there was, and remains, something more fundamental to account for sade's popularity. her music has a resilience that belies its apparent softness. it stays in the heart and in the head long after the last notes have fallen silent, in the same way that the embers of a love affair never truly go cold. that's why, just a year after the first single, she became one of the few recording artists ever to appear on the cover of time magazine. because from the very beginning her music transcended the pop moment.
indeed, with the release in 1984 of her debut diamond life, sade was speaking to a global audience. featuring hit singles your love is king, smooth operator and hang on to your love, the album spent 98 weeks on the uk charts and 81 weeks on the billboard charts. sade received a bpi award for best album and a grammy for best new artist. after diamond life came 1985's promise, the rich, evocative second album that yielded hits such as is it a crime and the sweetest taboo, which has become one of the most played songs in radio history. like it's predecessor, this too was an international multi-platinum success. yet the paradox of true artistry is that it makes the very difficult appear instinctive and easy. that's why art is so compelling. because the finished work is so dazzling that it demands a leap of imagination to picture the struggle that's gone into it's conception. this is why sade, who has never allowed her music to be anything less than immaculate, tantalises audiences so. throughout her career, there has been intense public curiosity about sade's private life, as though its uncovering will reveal how she comes to make such compelling music. but modern celebrity culture, with its prurient demands for increasingly intimate revelations, has its perils. and sensing these from early on, sade has tried simply to remain true to herself by only doing interviews and only making music when she has something to say. wary of the press clamour that was building in the eighties, the singer relocated temporarily to madrid, although she strongly refuted "the myth that i'm a shy, reclusive diva. i'm not shy or reclusive. i just spend my time with people rather than journalists." three years later, she reconvened the group to record stronger than pride, the 1988 hit album which produced memorable singles like paradise, love is stronger than pride and nothing can come between us. in the album's wake came a pan-continental tour across europe, australia and japan that included sade's first full-scale arena tour of america. throughout their history, the group have always attracted a diverse, multi-racial audience who are drawn by the band's open-minded approach to music. sade have created dance floor classics, songs for film soundtracks, radio favourites and late night love anthems, at the same time refusing to be classified simply as a pop group, an r&b act, a soul band or anything else as one-dimensional. instead, like the multi-cultural london streets the group hails from, their music has thrived by embracing diversity as a guiding principle.
in 1992, sade released love deluxe, a bold, emotionally honest album that won huge critical and commercial acclaim. in america it spent 90 weeks on the billboard charts, while the single no ordinary love, featured prominently in the robert redford movie indecent proposal. in 1994 came the 16 track best of sade, but now, eight years since her last new work and after 40 million record sales, she releases lovers rock. stripped down and subtle, it is a deceptively simple record that showcases sade's remarkable talent as a writer of songs that bear a hallmark of enduring refinement. from the spare, acoustic sweetest gift to the poignant all about our love and the moving slave song, this is an album of warmth and intimacy and sensitivity. on lovers rock, as she has done with earlier albums, sade continues to describe the secret murmurs of the heart's desire, remaining true to herself in her work by always reaching further, always stretching higher.
From the King of Sorrow video
Last edited by gemini072 on Wed 22 Mar 2006 16:18; edited 1 time in total
Posted: Wed 16 Nov 2005 19:14 Post subject: Re: Sade aka Helen Folasade Adu
G-Man wrote:
Boy she gets better with age....Wasn't the "King of Sorrow" video filmed in Puerto Rico?
Yes, she does, I wonder if she is coming out with anything new. I saw her in concert, and it blew me away from what I expected.
I thought it was filmed in Jamaica, but maybe not, she was banned from there for a while. Her current lover/husband is a Rastafarian, so maybe she was 'unruly'
I adore Sade. Her most recent album was sheer poetry--a triumph of talent and lyrical genius. She was incredibly important to me in my teens particularly because (at the risk of sounding arrogant) she and I look almost exactly alike and I was in dire need of "someone who looked like me" (unheard-of in my younger years because I lived in an entirely White family in an entirely White town[okay, there were two Japanese families, but otherwise totally White]). God bless Sade.
I adore Sade. Her most recent album was sheer poetry--a triumph of talent and lyrical genius. She was incredibly important to me in my teens particularly because (at the risk of sounding arrogant) she and I look almost exactly alike and I was in dire need of "someone who looked like me" (unheard-of in my younger years because I lived in an entirely White family in an entirely White town[okay, there were two Japanese families, but otherwise totally White]). God bless Sade.
True, I fell in love with her music before I knew what she looked like. I guess that is true artistry. I mean after what? 10 years she comes back with a album that is a hit? what is that! I hope to hear from her soon. She is something to see live in concert
I love, love, love Sade! Love Deluxe is in my top 10 all-time best albums. You know an album is good when it sustains you 10 years before the artist releases something new.
Now if only D'Angelo could get his act together...
I love, love, love Sade! Love Deluxe is in my top 10 all-time best albums. You know an album is good when it sustains you 10 years before the artist releases something new.
Now if only D'Angelo could get his act together...
lol, I know, I have all of her cd's and the last concert on dvd. I'm trying to find in news on her. She keeps a low profile. Raising a daughter from/with a Rasta dude from the islands.
New Sade in 2009
Sade's new album will be released November 24, 2009. Just in time for the Holidays
The title of the Album has not been released.
If you know Sade, you know she does not make albums for the money, Sade is an artist who creates music purely on inspiration. Hence why we've waited nearly a decade for another release, like a poet with a 9 year dry spell until she fell in love again, Sade will bless us with another classic.
November 2000 was the last time Sade had a new album out, here we are, 9 years later and we are once again being blessed with another November release date, Why november? Sade loves the Holidays...
While some political observers lament a return of the same old, same old, fans of the Nigerian-born singer have gladly welcomed a fresh batch of takes on the labors of lost love.
Regardless of the new talent and musical trends that have come and gone since her last studio album, one thing will never change, her honeyed voice. With only slight stylistic changes marking each new collection of songs, Sade has sold more than 40 million albums since the mid-'80s, each marked by tales of heartache and longing, and none more spare and haunting than Lovers Rock.
The 50-year-old singer, who got her first break in the early '80s fronting the English Latin soul band Pride, reveals little about her closely shielded private life on her #5 album.
From her signature first hit, 1984's "Smooth Operator," off her Diamond Life debut, to "The Sweetest Taboo," Sade has avoided trend-hopping. It's a pattern she told MTV Europe she's continuing on her latest release. "We're lucky that we have some platform already established that we can step back onto," she said. "We haven't ever adapted to fit in and even right at the very beginning we didn't really fit in. We have our own kind of course and that's the route we go. So we either sink or swim."
I love her music. I have her cd's and I have seen her in concert before. I agree with those who said she is an artist and lives her private life very low key.
There is the joke or riddle I have heard about her.
Who can not make a cd for years and years, totally disappears , and then comes on back with a new cd that sells big and sell shows? Shade!!!!IT is true.
Posted: Sun 15 Nov 2009 05:13 Post subject: Sade is a great artist
I agree, she is one of the most underrated artists, even today she deserves major props. I feel she does not get nearly enough acknowledgments. Does she even have a star in Hollywood? Now that would be a project...
Posted: Wed 16 Dec 2009 16:03 Post subject: Re: Sade is a great artist
Hopeful wrote:
I agree, she is one of the most underrated artists, even today she deserves major props. I feel she does not get nearly enough acknowledgments. Does she even have a star in Hollywood? Now that would be a project...
She's probably very popular in her own country and in other parts of the world, maybe much more so than in the United States.
Tina Turner is still going strong in Europe, even though her star has long faded in the U.S.
Most children of the 80s in the U.S. still love Sade. She's one of those artists whose latest CD is anticipated precisely because she doesn't put one out every year or two.
Toni Braxton's back, Sade's back...where's D'Angelo?
He's had some legal troubles I think. Plus he's chubbed up a bit...His six pack is now a half keg last time I saw him. He'll have to get into some serious shape before he comes out with a slew of new videos.
He's had some legal troubles I think. Plus he's chubbed up a bit...His six pack is now a half keg last time I saw him. He'll have to get into some serious shape before he comes out with a slew of new videos.
Yeah I'd heard he was in trouble and had gained some weight...but he started out as a chunky guy, didn't he? I don't care about his body. He needs to get back in the studio with that voice!
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