Sade Adu: biography. Sade (singer): biography, creativity, personal life and interesting facts Sade now

Goddess of the Black Continent. Time has no power over her talent, nor over her magically wrong beauty. Years passed, styles changed, but her songs did not go out of fashion. The concept of fashion is generally inapplicable to Sade, as if she exists in a parallel stream of time. In her 16-year career, Sade recorded only five albums, each of which easily reached multi-platinum status.

Helen FolaSade Adu was born on January 16, 1959 in the city of Ibadan, the capital of the state of Oyo, which is located in the southwest of Nigeria, a country with a population of less than Minsk (one and a half million) and a very hot climate , where the vast majority of people have a very dark skin color and, like all Negroes, run well. Indeed, Helen has rather dark skin and African features are easily visible, but she is only half Nigerian. Her father, professor of economics, teacher Adebisi Adu (native Nigerian), met his future wife, nurse Anne Hayes (English), when he was invited to lecture in London. They fell in love, got married, and soon Ann gave birth to a son, who was named simply Bagni in Nigerian. Then they moved to live in Ibadan, where baby Helen was born (this time the name was clearly chosen by the mother). It turned out to be quite difficult for the neighborhood kids to call the girl by her English name, so she made this task easier for them by highlighting her middle name, which at the household level was reduced to Sade.

Despite initial passionate feelings for each other, her parents divorced as soon as Sade was 4 years old, and together with her mother and brother she flew to live in London. They settled in the north side of town, where Ann's parents lived, and stayed with their grandparents until Ann remarried and moved with her family to Holland-on-Sea, where her children were subjected to frequent racist attacks and teasing. by local kids.

When Sade was growing up, she listened to a lot of music. Basically, she preferred soul. She spent days listening to records by Curtis Mayfield, Donny Hathaway and Marvin Gay. The young girl was most struck by how simple, at first glance, a melody can express so many feelings, whether it be joy or sadness, hope or sadness. She was also struck by how music can evoke the same feelings not only in the one who makes it, but also in those who listen to it. But then, despite the fact that music took up more and more space in Sade's life, she did not even think about starting to sing herself. She studied the art of fashion at St. Martin's College, I must say, quite successfully. Her debut took place there, in college, when she was asked to perform as a vocalist in a young up-and-coming band. This "job" was temporary, Sade had to sing until her friends, musicians, had to find a permanent singer. And of course, the singing of the young girl turned out to be so sensual and beautiful that they immediately abandoned the search for another participant. In addition, Sade showed herself as the author of lyrics and music for songs, so the question of final acceptance into the group disappeared by itself.

So, after the release of the debut album "Diamond Life" in 1984, which in addition to "Your Love is A King" also included such songs as "Smooth Operator" and "Hang On To Your Love", Sade burst into the elite. Its popularity immediately acquired a truly global significance. As for the record, it spent 88 weeks in the UK charts and 81 weeks in the US national hit Billboard magazine parade for almost two years, for a newcomer, just a resounding success! In 1984, Sade received a BPI Award for "Diamond Life" for best album. What's more, Sade won a Grammy for Best New Artist that year! After "Diamond Life" Sade releases the album "Promise", which is met with the same warmth on both sides of the Atlantic. Hits like "Is It A Crime" and "Sweetest Taboo" are among the most played radio songs in America in history. Like "Diamond Life", "Promise" becomes an ultra successful album, reaching multi platinum status in several countries.

In 1988, Shade and his group recorded a new album, the first after a three-year break. "Stronger Than Pride" brings us classic hits like "Paradise", "Love Is Stronger Than Pride" and "Nothing Can Come Between Us". The release of the album is supported for the first time by a massive world concert tour. In addition to European countries, Sade gives concerts in Japan and Australia. Also, in 1988 Sade for the first time gives a series of big concerts in America.

Throughout her career, she always challenged her listener, went, as they say, to frankness. She immersed us in her world of languid, sensual music. She made us not only a fan of her work, but also a direct participant in it. Sade has always amazed us with the breadth of her talent. On account of her and classic dance hits, and songs for various films and love ballads, which have become favorites of the radio charts and night bars. And at the same time, Sade remained a simple pop group. Sometimes their music slipped into RnB, sometimes into soul, but for all that, they never changed their principles.

In 1992, Sade released the album "Love Deluxe" a clear, emotional and extremely honest product that met with the warmest criticism and the biggest commercial success of their career. In America, the record spent 90 weeks on the national hit parade, and the song "No Ordinary Love" was featured on the soundtrack of the film Indecent Proposal, starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore.

Two years later, in 1994, Sade released The Best Of Sade, a collection of 16 of the band's classic hits. And now, after eight years of silence and with forty million records sold behind him, Sade gives us his new album Lovers Rock.

This remarkably simple work takes us back to the roots of the band's music back to the roots. From playful, semi-acoustic "Sweetest Gift" to provocative "All About Our Love" and danceable "Slave Song" we'll hear Sade at her best. With this album Sade continues to tell us his bittersweet stories. About how the heart can hurt and about how full and beautiful our life is. And musically, "Lovers Rock" leaves us confident that Sade still has something to surprise us with.

In fact, we know almost nothing about Sade's personal life. After the second record, she disappeared from the field of view of the public and the media, only occasionally appearing with new albums. In 1986, she left for Madrid and somehow dropped that she “prefers communication with people over communication with journalists.” And fans had to catch snatches of rumors: after "Stronger Than Pride", the singer returned to London, bought a house and equipped a studio in it; divorced her husband, Spanish director Carlos Scola, had a child with Jamaican reggae producer Bob Morgan, was arrested in Jamaica for speeding.

These are just pieces of the puzzle of Helen Adu's life, unknown to us. Perhaps this is the secret of her enduring success not to waste yourself on trifles, to cherish and insist on your gift, like precious wine.

Sade emerges from his solitary residence

She is Britain's most successful female solo artist, but she still remains a charming mystery. Sade emerges from her secluded residence to reveal that deep down she remains a tree-climbing tomboy.

Sade is so protective of his privacy, is so wary of extreme media attention that her friends - all of whom also avoid the hype - have nicknamed her "Howie" named after Howard Hughes ( Howard Hughes). The most secretive British artist of the 1980s has maintained such a low profile towards the press since her hit "Smooth Operator"- one tour in 14 years - so when we meet at her record company's London office to hear songs from her new album, SOLDIER OF LOVE I'm the only person in this room who's met her before.

10 years have passed since the release of her last album, offered to the attention of listeners in 2000, Lovers Rock. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the authority she wields is quite palpable. She is the most successful solo artist the UK has ever given the world, having sold more than 50 million albums in her 27-year career. And more than half of those copies have been sold since the mid-1990s, when Sade almost disappeared from view. Since then, she has appeared only a few times - and this interview is the only one, private, to which she now agreed.

Paradoxically, she herself is open, kind and gentle - she generously allows me to enter her spacious Gregorian house in green north London - and is ready to laugh at herself. Unlike her songs, which are often filled with inner sadness and regret, her speech is interspersed with lively and very "English" self-irony. She tells me about a graffiti of her that her guitarist Stuart Matthewman saw in New York. Above her charming image, some wit wrote a note: "This bitch sings when she wants to." Sade finds this amusing. This quite convincingly sums up her career. She creates music by her own rules.

She tells me how, having recently noticed a poster for an album Lady Gaga "The Fame Monster", she wondered, "Why can't I be so angry about being famous?" She is a tough, ambitious woman. “In terms of creativity, I have a strong desire and lofty aspirations. I don't want to do anything other than the best I can do,” she says. In addition, she scorns the music industry's promotional fuss, despite knowing that it's hard to win public sympathy if you ignore her.

She learned the underside of fame - "not the sweet and rosy one that anyone expects" - very early. As her albums sold in the millions around the world, the paparazzi climbed the trees around her London home to take an intimate picture of her. Rumors about her personal life plagued her, even as amusing as the rumor that she was going to buy the Fulham Football Club. “I've come to think that the recording devices journalists use must be mixing what you're saying like a blender. It’s terrible that there is such an attitude that something seems simple, then there must be something funny about it.”

During one grueling interrogation by a female tabloid journalist about the affairs of the heart in her life - which, as we will see later, was not entirely honest - she burst into tears and vowed there and then to stop all interviews altogether. “There was a feeling that you open yourself to everyone, even to those with whom you once sat next to the bus. Why should you do this?” In the same way, she did not want to appear as “some kind of representative of a refined life,” although she does not regret this. “When the music fades appearance, it is absolutely not perceived correctly.

She does not look much aged during her long absence. On the eve of her 51st birthday, her face remains without braces and she is still amazing. Higher in real life Rather than she appears on stage (she is approximately 5'8") with a large, rounded head, wide-set eyes, and curls of jet-black hair, she has an exotic charm that she claims she hasn't specifically cared for. “People always tend to ask, ‘What do you feel when you see your face on the cover of a magazine?’ But that doesn’t mean anything to me at all. I really don't notice it. I don't try to advertise my image.”

Despite the fact that she was awarded the Order of the British Empire ( OBE ) in 2002, currently the largest number of her fans live in the States, where approximately 4 million copies of the album were sold. Lovers Rock. Her dressing rooms at American concerts were regularly adorned with flowers donated by "celebrity" admirers such as Aretha Franklin ( Aretha Franklin). The audience is always noisy and enthusiastic to greet the performer, who, unlike any other representative of Brit-soul, does not try to portray a gospel diva, and even more so with an American accent. Our transatlantic brethren love Sade, it seems, because she looks like no one but herself.

The reviewers here meanwhile are complaining that she can't really sing. The first time I hand it to her, she chuckles, as she often does to fend off ridicule. “She can be very hostile, England. Not only to me, to everyone. England is like an angry old aunt. You can leave, but still stay with her, although she criticizes you all the time and does not accept you properly, even when you are doing your best. But you continue to love her, in a certain way. And then you die.” She is laughing. “Those bitches will eventually outlive you!”

So she's still a bouncy resident of the unkind UK and has no plans to leave even if the income tax goes up a lot or the album SOLDIER OF LOVE will be no better received here than her two previous studio albums. She keeps her London home for business meetings, but she herself now lives in a village near the town of Stroud, Glaucestershire, where she settled in 2005 with her thirteen-year-old daughter Ila and her boyfriend Ian, a former Royal Marine with whom she has been married for four years. of the year.

Stroud may seem like an odd choice for a half-Nigerian soul artist whose music and lifestyle are usually assumed to be downright "urban". She never corrected her image - moving smoothly in an extravagant dress and singing "Smooth Operator". But, like much of what little is known - or believed - about Shad Adu, this is not true. She is well aware that her family is the subject of ridiculous speculation in the English provinces. But deep down, Sade, and always has been, feels like a country girl.

Sade, born Helen Folashade Adu ( Helen Folasade Adu), was born in Ibadan, Nigeria, and is the daughter of an English district nurse, Ann Hayes ( Anne Hayes), and a Nigerian university lecturer, Bizi Adu ( Bisi Adu), who had met in London five years earlier. But the marriage fell apart and the four-month-old Sade - her neighbors in Ibadan refused to name her English name- returned to England with her mother and older brother Bagni ( Banji). Her parents' divorce left a lasting impression that is felt in her songs: "I have a lot of them, probably even more than I realize." Love is often portrayed as an almost unattainable great patience or long hard work. All this, as she herself admits, comes from the past, from the troubled marriage of her parents. “My mother left my father because she found it impossible to live with him, although they loved each other very much. It was hard for my mom because he was the man of her life. On the wedding day my father gave her a red rose and when he died she threw it in his grave. She kept it for 30 years. That was the moment I realized how much she cared about him.”

The couple maintained a relationship and even talked about a possible return to each other when Sade was 21, but this did not happen. “He was a very strange man, my father, he always remained a boy. But he definitely loved my mom very much.” And this despite the fact that he became the father of four more children - two boys and two girls - from three different women. Sade maintains relationships with all his half-siblings who live in Switzerland and America.

After the breakup of the family, they went to their English grandparents on the border of Essex and Suffolk, not far from Colchester, and while her mother worked day and night as a nurse in the local villages, Sade was mostly raised by her grandparents. It was an unusual story of radical English non-conformism. Grandfather Hayes was a small farmer, a Catholic socialist, the son of parents who had wealth above average, who were members of the White Way movement ( whiteway), a pseudo-socialist utopian community formed at the turn of the century on a "back to the earth" ideology, promoted in Russia at the end of the 19th century by the writer Leo Tolstoy.

Her great-grandparents eventually left the White Way, as Sade later learned, “because they were deeply religious and found something in the communal property in the White Way a bit risky. They were not part of "open communes", which basically meant the division of property between partners.” Her grandfather settled in the Stroud area, quickly trained as a clergyman and tried to enlist in the ranks of the "left" during the years of the Spanish civil war. After his marriage, he moved to the east. “But he always sang verses about the Western Lands brilliantly. He knew novelist Laurie Lee ( Laurie Lee) and he loved the area. We ended up stopping five minutes from the old land in Slad Valley where his feet had taken him.” Not far from her cottage, there is a place where Sade says she always introduces her grandfather when she drives by.

When Anne Hayes announced in 1955 that she was marrying a Nigerian, her parents “thought it risky, but fortunately my grandfather was a big fan of the African-American singer and human rights activist Paul Robeson ( Paul Robeson) and that alleviated the problem.” In recognition of this, Ann gave her first child, Bagny, a middle name, Paul.

Sade grew up, as has often been reported, not as an ordinary Essex girl, but as a tree-climbing tomboy from East Anglia who loved to watch cowboy films. She retains many "boyish" traits - a deep, masculine voice, a loud, open laugh, and a habit of sitting openly - which, in a strange way, are combined with her elegant appearance. A shadow of embarrassment occasionally covers her when this is pointed out to her. “There were no girls my age in the area, so I played with the boys from my brother's company. I didn't have a girlfriend until I was nine years old. But I had complete freedom, riding my bike from morning to night, helping my grandparents dig their garden. I was very independent. My mom gave me freedom even though she didn’t have much choice because she worked all day.” She still loves to work in the garden. “It's so comforting after you've spent the whole day trying to write songs!”

When her mother changed jobs, at age 11, Sade moved to a coastal town near Clacton, "which I didn't like. Most of the people who lived there were over 65 years old, and this place was not suitable for me." The next stop was London, where, showing a talent for art at school, she landed a place at Central St. Martin's College of Art and Design, where, over time, she traded her provincial earthiness for a rough urban equivalent: roaming the countryside in a shabby transit van, usually driven by herself. , singing backing vocals in a soul band called Pride. Her London residence was an illegally occupied space in a disused fire station, with an outdoor bath, briefly shared with her then-boyfriend, fashion journalist Robert Elmes ( Robert Elms).

Music was not her number one priority. After graduating from college, Sade set out to make clothes. But she was a fan of American soul giants Donnie Hathaway ( Donny Hathaway) and Bill Withers ( Bill Withers), and as a black performer in a mostly white surrogate soul band, gave the group credibility. “I didn’t have any confidence in my vocal abilities, but I felt that I enjoyed writing songs.” Song "Smooth Operator", which she performed solo, quickly attracted the attention of record company agents, although, at first, her ardent devotion to her band meant that she ignored their suggestions. According to one longtime friend, Sade is obsessed with "community loyalty."

Finally, in 1983, she signed with the Epic label on the condition that she take three of her bandmates (guitarist and saxophonist Stuart Matthewman, keyboardist Andrew Hale and bassist Paul Danman) with her. Even their income from record sales and live concerts has always been split into four parts. There have been arguments over the years - "because my 'meter' is much more sensitive than theirs," she insists - but there have been no band breakups or new members. The group remains one compact block under the control of a founder who likes the nickname "Aunt Sade". None of the other three ever contradicted "Head". “They look like old family friends,” she says. “There are times when it becomes like Christmas and all the skeletons from the closet appear. But, in general, it's good.”

It was not very good that they were active supporters and breathlessly related to Thatcher values. But rightly noting, they themselves did not provide any assistance, only titled their debut album Diamond life and, to a large extent, exuding an aura of glamour, in keeping with Britain's materialistic impulse in the 1980s. Sade defends her early youth image as an echo of the fashion style sung by her American soul heroes.

But the old accusation that Sade was a reflection of the yuppie era still torments her, making her unusually touchy. “Given the history of my family, this really annoys me. And that pissed me off so much at a time when we were secretly giving away money we didn't even really have ourselves yet to Arthur Scargill. Arthur Scargill) and these amazing miners.”

With quite a lot of money in the bank - the Sunday Times list of Britain's richest people recently put her at £30 million - Sade has moved into the lower tier of people who continue to operate and devote more time to her personal life. It was not an "easy ride". As a stubborn and independent woman, long accustomed to taking care of herself, Sade, as one old comrade put it, is “not a weak player” in matters of the heart. “I paid a big price,” she says of her romantic relationship. Her six-year marriage to Spanish director Carlos Pliego ( Carlos Pliego) ended in 1995 “because he found it difficult to share me with the rest of the world.” Despite buying her apartment in Madrid and spending such a large number of time with Pliego there, as much as she could, was not enough, and the marriage fell apart after her long absence from the American tour.

A subsequent romance with a Jamaican musician whom she met in London resulted in the birth of her daughter Ila in 1996, but unfortunately the affair did not last long. This confirmed the difficulties of life for the African-British woman who, with her complex inner world, at times struggled to feel that she was needed by someone. As a teenager, she saw Jackson 5 on television and was “more fascinated by the audience than what was happening on stage. They attracted children, mothers with children, old people, whites, blacks. I was really touched by it.” Motivated by a desire to find out her boyfriend's Jamaican roots, they visited Kingston, but were arrested for speeding, returned home and dispersed. Relations between the three are now tense.

Her new man, Ian Watts Ian Watts), whom she met after moving to Stroud, she is convinced is The One - and a true villager. “Ian was a Royal Marine, then a fireman, then a Cambridge chemist graduate. I always said that if I could only find a guy who could cut wood and had a great smile, then I wouldn't care if he was an aristocrat or a thug, as long as he stayed good guy. In the end, I found an educated thug!” - at the same time, Sade laughs until she drops, and continues to laugh when she remembers her mother introducing Ian to someone as "'Sade's current boyfriend', as if he came off the assembly line or something like that."

Ian's 18-year-old son, Jack, lives with them in a cottage in Stroud, making them a modern "nuclear" family. “Ian is Ila's real father. He does all the things a father should do and she really cares about him.” Her daughter has a caring stepfather and an older half-brother whom she adores. Sade says, "I feel like I finally won the lottery."

“I'm not the kind of person who needs a lot of money. You could break into this house and leave in half an hour without finding anything worth stealing,” Sade says, and it’s hard to disagree with that. The living room on the ground floor of her London home is a large but sparsely furnished space with several white upholstered sofas, hardwood floors and bare walls. For the past hour, we have sat on a red rug in front of a single-chamber electric fireplace, which, in terms of age, should be the same as herself. She has a few of those old-fashioned burners that she says, “They are my favorites.”

Thrift, another traditional provincial habit, is her style, but for all that, she is generous. Once the royalties rose, she helped her mother buy a house in Clacton, bought her brother Bagni a home in the States, and supported various unknown friends in their "business projects." The musicians touring with her comment on how fair she was to mention their names as collaborators in writing music - a rare thing in the stingy world of popular music accounting.

She did this with the absolute knowledge that none of the rewarding participants would ask for it themselves, “or ever write anything about me” that she didn't give them something. It's not just a personality trait or eccentricity of control, as she claims, "I don't like being solely in charge, even when it's supposed to be." She is not shy about talking about money in substance. “I have always wanted to have money. When I was a little girl, I used to create football "common funds". But it’s a completely different thing when you have them, and your life is no longer tied to making money.”

She is completely incomprehensible. Today she is dressed in a simple black blouse and hard-to-describe black trousers. As we speak, she rolls her own cigarettes and blows the smoke into the chimney above the empty fireplace. (She quit smoking five years ago, but started again when she started making a new record.) Outside on the road is her own old stocky Volvo, which she traded in her vintage BMW for after she got Ila. Her stylist, video director and friend Sophie Muller ( Sophie Mueller) used to say that driving Sade “looks like a young man in the body of a woman.” It's hard to imagine her like this in this Volvo.

With her sensible provincial mind, she realizes how lucky she is. She has sorted out her family life, earned as much money as she needs, and continues to create music in her spare time and in her own way. “Does it still make sense? I think it has. After every album, I think, ‘That’s it, I’ve had enough, never again.’ But how lucky am I that at my age I can still do this without any outside pressure?!”

Her home in Stroud is a small house she calls a “cave” built from rubble that, five years after she moved in, is “partially completed. There are still wires sticking out in some places.” She and Ian are now tidying up the neighboring country house, "but God only knows when we'll finish this." She enjoys a quiet, secluded life in Stroud, where the local papers don't pay any attention to her. "They're more interested in Eddie Eagle ( Eddie the Eagle), he is a bigger star in these parts than I am.” And Ila respects the province. “She is enamored with frogs and newts and worms and all sorts of snails, just like I used to be.”

How to combine career and family is now a big question for her. “Being a mom is the most important and hardest job I have ever done. I'm not complaining, but I've never had a babysitter. For many years after her birth, I put Ila to bed every night. As soon as she appeared, she became the center of my life.” She took her five-year-old daughter on her last world tour in 2002, "but I didn't let her watch any of the shows because I didn't want her to hear people screaming at her mom. She wasn't ready for that." Ila sings on one of the tracks on the album SOLDIER OF LOVE[composition "Baby Father"- approx.] - but Sade is at a loss as to what to do with her when she inevitably has to deal with the promotion of a new album with a long tour.

She claims to have loved performing as her concerts were the last blow to her critics. “Regardless of what anyone might say about me, when I feel the warmth coming back to me from the audience, especially in America, I think that it is much more important than all this nonsense. In fact I prefer to sing live now, I feel much more comfortable than before. I used to get a little numb and worried about my vocal performance, like I didn't learn this "language" properly.” Today, Sade feels great being at home, by herself. “Now it’s much easier for me to express myself.”

Sade is a group known all over the world. All members of this musical group come from Britain. Band line-up: Stuart Matthewman, Paul Spencer Denman and Andrew Hale. The question arises, why did the team get such a name? The answer is very simple - that's the name of the only girl in the group. Sade is a singer from God.

Group "Sade"

As for the stylistic direction in which the band plays, it combines soul, jazz, rhythm and blues, funk rock and soft rock. The first successful performance of the band took place in 1984. The peak of popularity came in the 1990s and 2000s. The musicians were known not only in their native Britain, but all over the world.

The very first album of the Sade group, released in circulation in 1985, was called Diamond life. It is known that only about 50 million records of this collection were sold in all countries of Europe and the world. In the United States of America, only 17,000,000 copies were printed, but this number was quite enough to literally infect many fans with the work of the group.

During its existence, the team has received a huge number of various prestigious awards, Grammy awards in various categories.

The famous soloist Sade is a singer who has been nicknamed by many music critics real star 1980s. Previously, she was a completely ordinary, unknown girl, they did not know about her outside the territory of England. At the moment, the already popular soloist of the sensational rock band considers only Great Britain to be her homeland. From reliable sources it is known that the famous vocalist was born in a Nigerian village located near Lagos.

Difficult childhood

Sade (singer, soloist of the group of the same name) is a mulatto, as she was born from a dark-skinned father from the Yoruba tribe, who works as an economist, and a white-skinned English mother. Due to the fact that the girl was born black, she constantly experienced the humiliation and insults of others. Having moved with her mother to the UK, little Sade experienced terrible moral discomfort. At school, everyone, without exception, called her a black woman, and at home, on the contrary, no one communicated with her because her skin was lighter than that of the others.

Immediately after the girl returned to her homeland, she entered college without any problems as a fashion designer and fashion designer. As the singer herself says, being a designer is her cherished dream, as this, in her opinion, brings up a taste for beauty. Oddly enough, but the singer Sade (the biography of the artist says that she always strived for creativity) in her youth dreamed of sewing not women's formal clothes, but men's tuxedos and frock coats.

Fate developed in such a way that the girl failed to work in the acquired profession. The atelier, created together with a friend of his youth, quickly went bankrupt, and the reason for this was the decline in the professional abilities and enthusiasm of the girls.

First steps in a musical career

But, fortunately, luck was favorable to Shada, so she soon realized herself in another no less profitable industry. The lucky girl caught the eye of the manager of a vocal group called Pride. Since then, the name of the young and daring Sade has increasingly appeared on tabloids and posters, and a huge number of concerts have remained behind her.

Sade remained in the shadows for a long time, as she was listed only as a backing vocalist. One fine day, the young nymph realized that all these performances, even in the best clubs, would not bring a stable income, because all this was temporary.

Building your team

After the stage of vocal mastery and artistry lessons was passed, the girl decides to make her old cherished dream come true and assemble her own team, which soon creates the first single called Love Is and Queen. By the way, before starting to come to grips with creating a group and recording albums, the girl herself wrote the lyrics for some songs, which in the near future were recognized as immortal hits.

Most of the recognized hits of the Sade group, the singer wrote not alone, but in the company of an outstanding saxophonist named Stuart Matthewman. The hallmarks of this collection are the very clear and natural sounding of each vocal part, as well as the excellent voices of Martin Gay and Curtis Mayfield. In the new creation of the group, it is no longer possible to find those deafening rhythms and annoying avant-garde, which was considered fashionable at that time. On the contrary, Sade is no longer a fan of noisy music, but begins to promote his own direction, which turns out to be simpler and more enjoyable for listeners. Soon, fans thank Sade, giving her the unspoken title of the new Billie Holiday.

According to many music critics, it is the singer Sade who performs one of the most melodic modern compositions. The songs are filled with special tenderness, mystery, some calmness and charm, which was sorely lacking for the then performers. Outwardly, completely calm tunes of the group are suitable for those who want to throw out all the hidden temperament with the help of music. An interesting fact is that at the numerous concerts of the newfangled band there are mainly those people who have already crossed the forty-year mark.

Sade does not have star disease

Despite the fact that this group has been considered one of the most famous in foreign charts for a very long time, Sade herself is completely devoid of any snobbery and arrogance. On the contrary, the girl willingly communicates with the audience and sings about what worries ordinary people. At social events, the singer appears very rarely, but lives in a modest apartment, which is located in the most ordinary area on the outskirts of London. It does honor to the singer that she refused her own PR when they wanted to remake her famous composition about love in a more modern way. Sade considered this a real blasphemy. The fact is that in that song love is sung, and making it a hit in a disco rhythm would be truly tactless.

Detractors say that despite the fact that the vocalists of the musical group work without rest, the group will soon collapse.

Personal life

The personal life of the singer is full of unpleasant events. Her first marriage to Carlos Scolu (Spanish filmmaker) did not last long. But their wedding was amazing. The couple married in Madrid on October 11, 1989. The ancient castle of Vinuelas was chosen for the celebration.

The mid-90s are full of no less significant events. The singer moved to Jamaica. There Sade had a fateful meeting with Bobby Morgan.

Sade's only daughter

In 1996, Sade and Morgan had a daughter, Ila. Very soon, an unpleasant surprise awaited the artist. Singer Sade and her daughter, who was only a year old, were in a car accident. The police insisted that it was Sade who had created the emergency. After failing to appear in court, the singer was issued an arrest warrant, but she justified herself by being next to her hospitalized daughter, providing a medical report.

Today, the daughter of the singer Sade finally decided to become a man. For a long time the girl had novels, but not with young people, but with women. More recently, Ila began active hormonal therapy for sex reassignment.

Career Performer

Total films 1

Genres jazz and blues, pop

Sade Adu (full name - Helen Folashade Adu) — a woman of unearthly beauty, but in addition she is a talented author of music and lyrics, a skilled arranger and an experienced producer. She never tried to be a role model. She built her life, trying to do as her feelings prompted, honestly and sincerely. Always true to herself and never compromising her principles and her music, Sade is one of the brightest musical phenomena of our generation.

Shade was born in Ibadan, Nigeria on January 16, 1959. Her parents, Bizi Adu and Ann Hayes, met in London while her father was studying at the London School of Economics. The couple moved to West Africa when Busy was offered a position as a university professor. Later, when the marriage was going through difficulties, Anne returned to England, to her parents, taking four-year-old Sade and her older brother Bungy.

In the early seventies, while living in Colchester, Essex, England, Sade learned to ride and got a horse, which she kept, constantly moonlighting on Saturdays. She read extensively, was interested in fashion, and mastered the art of dance and soul music at discos at nearby American air bases and at local clubs in Ilford and Canvey Island. Sade listened to soul artists such as Curtis Mayfield, Donny Hathaway and Marvin Gay, performers who conveyed the whole gamut of feelings inimitably heartache and hope, and who possessed an amazing skill that allowed them to create something lasting and extraordinary from these experiences.

In 1977 Sade came to London to study a three-year fashion design course at St. Martin's College of Art. Having received higher education, she and her friend Joya Mellor, who still designs stage costumes for Sade, opened a small menswear design studio in London's Chalk Farm. But new business hardly developed. And she began to work as a fashion model.

In 1980, Sade met Lee Barrett, the manager of the Latin soul band Ariva, who later became her manager. She joined the band Ariva and started writing her own songs.

In 1982, while a member of Pride, Sade met Stuart Matthewman and Paul Spencer Denman. Together with Paul Cook, they formed a separate group called Sade and started writing their own material. Andrew Hale later joined the band and Paul Cook left the band.

On October 18, 1983, Sade signed with Epic Records. All subsequent Sade albums - Diamond Life (1984), Promise (1985), Stronger Than Pride (1988), Love Deluxe (1992), The Best Of Sade (1994), Lovers Rock (2000), Lovers Live (2002) - were released on this label.

In 1985, Sade starred in the film The Beginners, directed by Julien Temple. She played the singer Athena Duncanon, performing Killer Blow, which she co-wrote with Simon Booth of the soul jazz band Working Week.

In 1986 Sade moved to Madrid, Spain.

On October 11, 1989, in the ancient castle of Vinuelas in Madrid, Sade married Carlos Scola, a Spanish film director. But the marriage soon fell apart and in 1990 Sade returned to London.

In the mid-1990s, Sade moved to Ocho Rios, Jamaica, where she met Bobby Morgan, a Jamaican producer. On July 21, 1996, she gave birth to a daughter, Ila.

In 1997, in Montego Bay, Jamaica, Shada was charged with driving in an emergency and disobeying a police officer. A Jamaican court later issued an arrest warrant for Sade when she failed to appear in court to answer the charges. But the medical report of her daughter's hospitalization allowed her arrest warrant to be suspended.

In 2005, Sade recorded the composition Mum, specially for the DVD Voices For Darfur, recording a charity concert held on December 8, 2004 at the Royal Albert Hall in London to promote awareness and fundraising to address the crisis in the Darfur zone, Sudan.

On February 8, 2010, after ten years of silence, Sade released her new album called Soldier of Love. The album was originally slated for release in early 2009.

After the release of the album, a real turmoil began in the press and among the singer's fans: Soldier of Love sold 501,000 copies in the United States in the first week, hitting the top of the American hit parade.

However, Sade herself admits that it is difficult for her to cope with her own popularity: “I am not comfortable because of fame, so I try to avoid places that will attract a lot of attention to me.”

The first single, Soldier of Love, has already made history by debuting at number 11 on the Urban Hot AC chart, the highest debut position in over a decade and the third highest position ever on the chart. The single also debuted at number 5 on the Smooth Jazz airplay chart, a summary chart of jazz radio play, climbing to number 1 and becoming the very first song with vocals to reach the top spot on the Smooth Jazz Top 20 Countdown chart.

On December 14, 2009, the official presentation and listening party of the new album for the press and invited guests took place at the Lincoln Center in New York.

It is noteworthy, but in the native British hit parade, Sade's album takes only fourth place. Nevertheless, music critics and producers assure that the return of the singer and her band can rightfully be called one of the most impressive successes of 2010.

Today Sade lives in his house in London. She guards her private life and prefers the company of old friends to a secular lifestyle. She loves to drive fast in her old Mercedes and is constantly trying to quit smoking. And she still often goes to bed very late.

Birthday January 16, 1959

English singer of Nigerian origin, songwriter and songwriter, arranger and producer, leader and sole vocalist of the world famous band Sade

Biography

Shade was born on January 16, 1959 in Ibadan, Nigeria. Her parents, Bisi Adu, a Nigerian economics teacher, and Anne Hayes, an English nurse, met in London and moved to West Africa. Later, when the marriage was going through difficulties, Ann returned to the UK, to her parents, taking the four-year-old Sade and her older brother Banji (Banji).

In the early 1970s, while living in Colchester, UK, Sade read a lot, was interested in fashion, mastered the art of dancing and enjoyed listening to such soul artists as Curtis Mayfield (Curtis Mayfield), Donny Hathaway (Donny Hathaway) and Marvin Gay ( Marvin Gaye).

On October 11, 1989, in the ancient castle of Vinuelas in Madrid, Sade married Carlos Scola (Spanish: Carlos Scola), a Spanish film director. But this marriage was unhappy and soon broke up.

In 1990, Sade returned to London.

In the mid-1990s, Sade moved to Ocho Rios, Jamaica, where she met Bobby Morgan, a Jamaican producer. July 21, 1996 she gave birth to a daughter, Ila (Ila).

• Absolute Beginners Original Soundtrack (Virgin, 1986)

Videography

See Sade's video

• "Newbies" (1986)
• "Voices For Darfur" (2005)