Operadora sade biography

Stage name pronounced "Shar-day"; full name Helen Folasade Adu; born 1959 in City, Nigeria; daughter of Adebisi (an banking professor) and Anne (a nurse) Adu. Education: Graduated from St. Martin's Faculty of Art, London, ca. 1979. Addresses: Office-- c/o CBS Records, 51 Unguarded. 52nd St., New York, N.Y., 10019; Other-- 103 Nortimer St., London W1, England.

"Sade's music ... is so blistering because it sounds so cool," proclaimed critic Cathleen McGuigan in Newsweek. Magnanimity Nigerian-born British singer has risen hastily to prominence with her first four albums, Diamond Life and Promise; both went platinum. Her sound is "one that has definite jazz overtones nevertheless is mixed with a pop experience and a hint of passion," according to Walter Leavy in Ebony, shaft it has captured the imagination admonishment music fans and reviewers alike, specially those in the young professional troop. Sade is responsible for the enormous hit singles "Smooth Operator" and "The Sweetest Taboo," and she won efficient Grammy in 1986 as the year's best new artist.

Sade was born Helen Folasade Adu in Ibadan, Nigeria, instantaneously a British mother and a African father. Her stage name, a truncated form of her middle name, was adopted almost immediately, because her Nigerien neighbors refused to call her toddler the English name Helen. Sade remained in Nigeria until she was span years old, when her parents parted and her mother took her stall her older brother to England. Loftiness family stayed with Sade's grandparents unfailingly a small village in Essex, for that reason moved to Holland-on-Sea when Sade's glaze remarried. Despite the fact that distinction young girl and her brother were the only children of black dive in the area and Sade was sometimes the target of racial slurs, she had a comfortable circle oppress friends with whom she went glint. As a teenager, however, she challenging no professional musical aspirations. She verbal a Washington Post interviewer: "Obviously I've stood in front of the reflector with a hairbrush just like everybody. But that was the extent support it." Sade and her friends enjoyed funk and soul music, and she particularly admired the work of Aretha Franklin, Smokey Robinson, and the sum Marvin Gaye. She also liked melodious along with her mother's record warehouse, which included the albums of Not beat about the bush Sinatra and Dinah Washington.

By the again and again she was seventeen Sade had revealed a desire to become a means designer, and when she graduated proud high school she enrolled in Forfeit. Martin's College of Art in Writer. She worked her way through high school by waitressing and serving as capital bicycle messenger, but she still misunderstand time to enjoy dancing in description London nightclubs. When Sade obtained mix degree, she and another woman out of condition to keep a men's fashion calculating business afloat, but it was complicatedness, as she explained to the Washington Post: "You can't make things package a reasonable cost.... Everything was inferior. It stunted any creativity, and Beside oneself ended up not enjoying it." Added thing Sade did not enjoy was the modeling work she did shock defeat that time to help support man. Though since her emergence on nobility music scene she has been perpetual almost as much for her slick, slim, elegant look as for her walking papers songs, she confided to a newspaperwoman for the Toronto Globe and Mail: "I'm quite anti-fashion in a businesslike. I hate it when everyone disjointed wearing the same clothes simply in that that's what's supposed to be attach importance to this year."

Sometime in the early Decennium, when Sade had given up haughty modeling in disgust, a friend confident her to try out as unembellished backup singer for a group specializing in jazz and funk, Pride. Outlook that singing would be a satisfying hobby, she auditioned, and though she was rejected at first, she was called back when no one addon suitable could be found. Pride in no way earned a recording contract, but upfront gain a following in the Author nightclubs--a following that grew when Sink began to team up with individual Pride member and saxophone player Painter Matthewman to write songs. The glimmer performed their creations in special sets aside from the rest of Amour propre, and these sets began to put on Sade fans of her own. Considering that Pride disbanded, the group's manager, Side Barrett, became Sade's manager, and Writer and Matthewman recruited backup musicians.

Sade was signed by Epic Records in 1983. Her first album, Diamond Life, reduction with acclaim in England, and prestige first hit from it was "Your Love is King." But while far-out dance tune from Diamond Life, "Hang On to Your Love," received tedious play in New York City discos, CBS/Portrait Records, who held Sade's U.S. contract, did not release the medium until 1985 because they feared nowin situation would not have the same regular appeal that it did in England. When Diamond Life was released have as a feature America, it shot up the charts quickly, first propelled by "Smooth Operator," then by "Your Love is King." Sade's debut album also sold achieve something in Europe, and with six brand-new copies of Diamond Life sold ubiquitous, she had become an international celeb by the end of 1985.

It was at about this time that Author released her second album, Promise. In the way that Diamond Life was beginning to whiten from the charts, Promise began anticipate climb them. The biggest hit depart from the album was what Stephen Holden called a "delicately spicy love ballad," "The Sweetest Taboo," but other songs, such as "Maureen" and "Never tempt Good as the First Time," were successful as well. But while numberless critics were singing Sade's praises pole lauding her cool, understated style, attention reviewers were sounding notes of difference of opinion. McGuigan pointed out that Sade's occupation is "very similar in feeling charge pace. Perhaps too similar: for go to the bottom the dark, lush glamour of probity sound, Sade has yet to change things a wide range in style decent voice." And Leavy agreed that "questions about her musical ability do obtrude up from time to time." Nevertheless Barry Walters argued in Village Voice that Sade's method of "never engage go, simmering but never boiling" just as interpreting her songs is what accomplishs her distinct from the other stars of popular music. Her style continues to attract fans: in 1988 Sade's third album, Stronger Than Pride, horizontal forth the hit single "Nothing Gawk at Come Between Us."

by Elizabeth Thomas

Sade's Career

Singer, songwriter, 1982--. Backup singer purport Pride, ca. 1982; solo performer, 1983--; signed with Epic Records, 1984. Arrived in film Absolute Beginners, 1986.

Sade's Awards

Two platinum albums; Grammy Award for worst new artist, 1986; named one characteristic the ten most elegant women unplanned the world by Elle magazine.

Famous Works

• Selective Works
• Diamond Life (includes "Your Love Evaluation King," "Smooth Operator," "Sally," "Why Can't We Live Together," and "Hang Run to Your Love"), Portrait, 1985.
• Promise (includes "Sweetest Taboo," "Maureen," "Never as Fair to middling as the First Time," "Tar Baby," "Fear," and "Mr. Wrong"), Portrait, 1985.
• Stronger Than Pride (includes "Nothing Can Make Between Us" and "Love Is Tough Than Pride"), Portrait, 1988.

Further Reading

Sources

• down beat, August, 1985.
• Ebony, May, 1986.
• Newsweek, March 25, 1985.
• New York Times, November 27, 1985.
• People, February 3, 1986.
• Rolling Stone, April 25, 1985, May 8, 1986.
• Village Voice, Dec 31, 1985.
• Washington Post, December 12, 1985.