Sade

Helen Folasade Adu (or Sade) was born in 1959, in Ibadan, Nigeria but spent her childhood in Colchester, Essex Sade. She read a good deal, developed an interest in fashion, acquired a taste for dancing and listened with great interesr to soul artists like Curtis Mayfield, Donny Hathaway, and Marvin Gaye.

In 1977, Sade came to London for a three-year course in fashion design at St. Martin's College. On graduating, she set up a small fashion company making men's clothes in London's Chalk Farm. She also found work as a photographic model.

Her first foray into the music business came about with a short-lived Latin soul group named Arriva. It was as a member of Arriva that she first performed the song "Smooth Operator," which would eventually become her first US hit. This song was co-written by guitarist/bassist Ray St. John.

Shortly thereafter, she joined St. John's band Pride, which also included guitarist Stuart Matthewman, bassist Paul Denman, and drummer Paul Cooke. However, Ray St. John left Pride soon afterwards, later resurfacing in the UK indie band Halo James.

The other four members then formed a new group, the eponymously-named "Sade" and began to write their own material. Keyboardist Andrew Hale joined the band as a keyboard player in mid-1983, and in 1983 she signed a solo deal with Epic Records and sister imprint Portrait Records for the US and Canada. All of the Sade albums are Sony Music releases.

The namesake of the group's talented lead vocalist and songwriter landed a record deal that year and burst onto the British pop scene with their 1984 single, "Your Love Is King". Spawned from the album Diamond Life, the album was only released in the US in 1985, although it was already a Top Ten hit in the UK.

The album, which is still the all-time best-selling debut album by a British female artist, yielded such hits as "Smooth Operator" (penned by Sade while she was with Pride), "Hang On To Your Love," as well as the album's title track. That year, her Live Aid performance at Wembley Stadium, and her Best New Artist Grammy cemented Sade's success.

Before the release of Sade's second album, Promise, the exotic vocalist made her acting debut in Julien Temple's Absolute Beginners, which featured a song she co-wrote, "Killer Blow". After Promise's huge success (it quickly rose to the top spot on the charts with hits such as "The Sweetest Taboo" and "Never As Good As The First Time") and extensive touring, Sade escaped the intrusive life of a high-profile figure, and sought refuge in Madrid.

After the 1988 release of Stronger Than Pride -- marking the end of her temporary exile -- Sade relocated to London, where she bought and renovated the house which would serve as the creative arena for the vocalist and her band. The fruit of their creative efforts was the 1992 album, Love Deluxe, which saw the same success as its predecessors. Spawning such hits as "No Ordinary Love" (featured on the soundtrack of the Demi Moore film Indecent Proposal), "Kiss of Life" and "Cherish the Day", the group's fourth album is known as the most ambitious one to date

Six years after the release of 1994's multi-platinum Best of Sade, a collection of her best songs, the vocalist returns with her band to release Lovers Rock. The first album to be produced solely by the band itself, it showcases Sade's sultry songwriting skills and soulful, jazz-inflected voice.

As one of the few singers to grace the cover of Time, Sade's talent and unique style have made her one of music history's pop icons -- while her elegant beauty and low-key life have contributed to her mystique.