Sade Adu
Category: Top Nigerian Musicians
Helen Folasade Adu (OBE) is a British-Nigerian Singer, songwriter, composer and record producer. She is the most successful female artist in British history, having sold over 110 million albums worldwide.
Sade Adu first achieved her major success in the 1980s as a front woman and lead vocalist of the Brit and Grammy Award winning English group Sade.
She was born on January 16 1959 in Ibadan, Oyo State to Adebisi Adu, a Nigerian economics lecturer and Anne Hayes, an English district nurse. The parents met in London while Adu was studying in London, they married and moved to Nigeria in 1955.
When she was four, her parents separated and Anne Hayes returned to England taking four year old Sade and her elder brother, Banji with her. Sade was initially taken care of by her grandparents just outside Colchester, Essex.
When Sade was 11 she moved to Holland- on sea to live with her mother, and after completing school at 18 she moved to London and studied at the Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design.
She studied Fashion at St. Martins School of Arts and only began her music career in 1981 with the “Pride” group comprising of three of her old school friends who approached her to help them out with the vocals for their songs.
Her Smooth Operator song attracted the attention of record company talent Scouts. Soon everybody wanted to sign her, but not the rest of Pride. She joined Epic 18 months later and took her friends and group members comprising of Sade, Saxophonist Stuart Matthewman, Keyboard Player Andrew Hale and Bassist Paul Denman with her.
In 1983 she signed a solo deal with Epic Records for her Smooth Operator Solo performances.
In 1989 she married Spanish film director Carlos Pliego, their marriage ended in 1995. She gave birth to a daughter, Ila Adu in 1995 after a relationship with Jamaican music producer Bob Morgan. They lived together briefly in Caribbean in the late nineties but later separated and she returned to England.
In 2002 she received an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) from Prince Charles at Buckingham palace for services to popular music, an award she dedicated to “all black women in England”
She was influenced by the music of Curtis Mayfield, Donny Hathaway and Bill Withers.
As a teenager, she saw the Jackson 5 at the Rainbow theatre in Finsbury Park, where she worked behind the bar at the weekends.
Personal Quotes
"I only make records when I feel I have something to say. I'm not interested in releasing music just for the sake of selling something. Sade is not a brand."
"If you just do TV or video then you become a tool of the record industry. All you're doing is selling a product. It's when I get on stage with the band and we play that I know that people love the music. I can feel it. Sometimes I yearn to be on the road. The feeling overwhelms me."
"It's terrible this Fleet Street mentality that if something seems simple and easy, there must be something funny going on."
"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."
Reference
Sade.com
WikipediaShe was born on January 16 1959 in Ibadan, Oyo State to Adebisi Adu, a Nigerian economics lecturer and Anne Hayes, an English district nurse. The parents met in London while Adu was studying in London, they married and moved to Nigeria in 1955.
When she was four, her parents separated and Anne Hayes returned to England taking four year old Sade and her elder brother, Banji with her. Sade was initially taken care of by her grandparents just outside Colchester, Essex.
When Sade was 11 she moved to Holland- on sea to live with her mother, and after completing school at 18 she moved to London and studied at the Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design.
She studied Fashion at St. Martins School of Arts and only began her music career in 1981 with the “Pride” group comprising of three of her old school friends who approached her to help them out with the vocals for their songs.
Her Smooth Operator song attracted the attention of record company talent Scouts. Soon everybody wanted to sign her, but not the rest of Pride. She joined Epic 18 months later and took her friends and group members comprising of Sade, Saxophonist Stuart Matthewman, Keyboard Player Andrew Hale and Bassist Paul Denman with her.
In 1983 she signed a solo deal with Epic Records for her Smooth Operator Solo performances.
In 1989 she married Spanish film director Carlos Pliego, their marriage ended in 1995. She gave birth to a daughter, Ila Adu in 1995 after a relationship with Jamaican music producer Bob Morgan. They lived together briefly in Caribbean in the late nineties but later separated and she returned to England.
In 2002 she received an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) from Prince Charles at Buckingham palace for services to popular music, an award she dedicated to “all black women in England”
She was influenced by the music of Curtis Mayfield, Donny Hathaway and Bill Withers.
As a teenager, she saw the Jackson 5 at the Rainbow theatre in Finsbury Park, where she worked behind the bar at the weekends.
Personal Quotes
"I only make records when I feel I have something to say. I'm not interested in releasing music just for the sake of selling something. Sade is not a brand."
"If you just do TV or video then you become a tool of the record industry. All you're doing is selling a product. It's when I get on stage with the band and we play that I know that people love the music. I can feel it. Sometimes I yearn to be on the road. The feeling overwhelms me."
"It's terrible this Fleet Street mentality that if something seems simple and easy, there must be something funny going on."
"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."
Reference
Sade.com
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