SADE

Born: Helen Folsade Adu, Ibadan, Nigeria, 16 January 1959

Genre: Rock, R&B

Best-selling album since 1990: Love Deluxe (1992)

Hit songs since 1990: "No Ordinary Love," "Kiss of Life," "By Your Side"

The music of Sade (pronounced SHAH-day) is synonymous with soulful, sultry sophistication. Sade and her band made their first impact in the mid-1980s with the albums Diamond Life (1984), which helped to earn her the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1985; Promise (1985); and Stronger Than Pride (1988), which went platinum after just two weeks of release. After a four-year hiatus Sade released the album Love Deluxe (1992), whose track "No Ordinary Love" notched a 1993 Grammy Award for Best R&B by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

Sade was born Helen Folsade Adu (Sade is a diminutive of Folsade) in Nigeria. Her Nigerian father was a professor of economics, and her British mother was a nurse. She grew up in England and developed a strong interest in jazz, soul, and funk music by the time she was a teenager. Interested in pursuing a career in fashion design, she entered into the music business, like many successful singers, by accident. The manager of a London funk group called Pride asked her to audition as a backup singer, mostly because of her good looks. (She lacked any experience or formal training as a singer.) Sade was well received and soon developed her own following after teaming up with Pride saxophonist Stuart Mathewman. Epic picked up the newly formed band Sade by the end of 1983.

By the 1990s Sade had released several albums with Top Ten hits, but she did not enjoy the unrelenting public attention. Exhausted and burned out from worldwide tours, the late 1980s found Sade living in Spain in an unhappy marriage to the documentary filmmaker Carlos Scola. Her marriage lasted a year and, after its dissolution in 1990, she moved back to London. Two years later, she released Love Deluxe, a collection of mellow, soulful, and jazzy contemplations on love and relationships. The album became her best-selling release. From the sultry love song "No Ordinary Love" to the soulfully jubilant "I Couldn't Love You More," the album celebrates hard-won love and personal struggle.

In 1995 Sade took time off to have a baby with her partner Rob Morgan. In 2000 she was back in the public eye with Lovers Rock, another classic albeit pared-down batch of jazz-influenced love songs. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard chart. Its stunning success is remarkable considering the commercial climate, which at the time was shaped by teenybopper and bubble gum pop. But few, if any, rival Sade's soulful, understated style. She contrasts sharply with the overtly emotional, melismatic delivery of other R&B singers. In 2001 Lovers Rock earned Sade her third Grammy, for Best Pop Vocal Album.

In a career marked by alternating periods of huge success and extended respites from the music business, Sade has extracted maximum returns from a minimalist vocal technique. She weds a world-weary coolness to emotional honesty through a smoky, alluring voice.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Diamond Life (Epic, 1984); Promise (Epic, 1985); Stronger Than Pride (Epic, 1988); Love Deluxe (1992, Epic); Best of Sade (Epic, 1996); Lovers Rock (Epic, 2000); Lovers Live (Epic, 2002).

carrie havranek