Sade

Sade (pronounced shah-day) is an English adult contemporary pop group led by lead singer, guitarist and sole female member Helen Folasade "Sade" Adu. Though Adu's smooth vocals are the heart of the band's sound, the other core members are accomplished musicians as well: Paul Spencer Denman (bass), Andrew Hale (keyboards) and Stuart Matthewman (guitar/saxophone).

Sade's debut album, Diamond Life, went Top Ten in the U.K. in late 1984 and sold platinum. In 1986, Sade won a Grammy for Best New Artist. Sade's US certified sales so far stands at 22.5 million units according to RIAA, and has sold more than 50 million units worldwide to date.

Helen Folasade Adu was born in Ibadan, Nigeria. When Sade was born, nobody locally was prepared to call her by her English name, and a shortened version of Folasade stuck.http://www.sade.com/us/biography/

Music was not her first choice as a career. She studied fashion at St Martin's School Of Art and only began singing after two old school friends with a fledgling group approached her to help them out with the vocals.http://www.sade.com/us/biography/ She discovered she liked writing music as well as singing.

For most of the past 20 years, Sade has chosen her personal life over her professional career, releasing only three studio albums of new material during that period. Her marriage to the Spanish film director Carlos Scola Pliego in 1989; the birth of her daughter in 1996 and her early 21st century move from North London to rural Gloucestershire, where she now lives with a new partner, have consumed much of her time and attention.http://www.sade.com/us/biography/

The band of Sade was formed as a side project of the London band Pride, after the addition of Nigerian-born, English-raised Adu. Emerging from an early 80's British trend for R&B-influenced pop music—including Culture Club, The Style Council and Prefab Sprout—Sade have outlasted (and outsold) most of their contemporaries. The 1984 debut, Diamond Life, reached the top ten in both the UK and US, and was followed by sustained, worldwide commercial success.

With 10 years since her last album Sade made news recently by coming out with her new album, Soldier of Love. In an industry where silence and unproductiveness usually means death of a career and the disappearance of a personality, Sade is making a statement. Her new single off that album throbs with a military beat and electric guitars that defy the industry and speak of survival.http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jYDL7JqzjSJG16T_Pyg7kI7Ku2eQ During the past 10 years Sade has devoted her time to her family and believes that her stint in domesticity has added to her music and allowed her to grow both as an artist and a person.http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jYDL7JqzjSJG16T_Pyg7kI7Ku2eQ

She states, "You can only grow as an artist as long as you allow yourself the time to grow as a person, we're all parents, our lives have all moved on. I couldn't have made Soldier of Love any time before now, and though it's been a long wait for the fans - and I am sorry about that - I'm incredibly proud of it." http://www.sade.com/us/biography/

Your Love Is King, 1984

Smooth Operator, 1984

The Sweetest Taboo, 1985

No Ordinary Love, 1992

By Your Side, 2000

King of Sorrow, 2001

Soldier of Love, 2009