Soul Singer Sade: Still Smooth

Ironically, she was studying just that subject at the St. Martin's School of Art when a couple of her school friends approached her to help out with vocals for their group.

Though she initially experienced stage fright, Sade found that she enjoyed writing songs. Within two years she overcame that stage fright and was singing with a group called Pride.

"I used to get on stage with Pride, like, shaking," said Sade of her stage fright. "I was terrified. But I was determined to try my best, and I decided that if I was going to sing, I would sing the way I speak, because it's important to be yourself."[1]

Helen Folasade Adu was born in Nigeria to a Nigerian university teacher and an English nurse. Friends and neighbors opted to shorten the child's middle name to Sade instead of using her English name. The name Folasade means "honour confers your crown."

At the age of four, Sade's parents separated and she and her mother and brother returned to England where Sade grew up listening to American soul music. She was particularly drawn to Curtis Mayfield and saw the Jackson 5 perform at the Rainbow Theatre where she worked weekends behind the bar.

Of that experience, Sade stated, "I was more fascinated by the audience than by anything that was going on on the stage. They'd attracted kids, mothers with children, old people, white, black. I was really moved. That's the audience I've always aimed for."[1]

While touring with Pride for three years, Sade began to attract that audience. And talent scouts. The song "Smooth Operator" which Sade co-wrote was one of the numbers that she and band members of Pride would often play during a segment set aside for jazzier numbers. Sade was soon in demand by recording companies. One glitch in the system though: they wanted to sign Sade but not the other members of the band.

Sade's loyalty to her fellow band members held out for over a year and a half. She finally relented and signed with Epic records on the condition that she take three of the band members with her. Stuart Matthewman, saxophonist, Andrew Hale, keyboardist and Paul Denman bassist are the three members who remain with Sade to this day.

"Diamond Life" was the first album Sade and her band members released. With most of the tracks co-written by Sade, "Your Love is King" made the top ten lists around the world and "Smooth Operator" with its sultry vocals established Sade as a timeless and classic performer.

The album won the BRIT Award for British Album in 1985.

At the time of its release, however, Sade was living anything but a diamond life. She and then boyfriend Robert Elms, lived in a converted fire station with no heating and a loo which often iced over in winter.

Life has improved a great deal since that time. Between 1984 and 2000, Sade released five albums, selling over 50 million albums all totaled: "Diamond Life," "Promise," "Stronger than Pride," "Love Deluxe" and "Lovers Rock." While these albums brought success, they also brought heartache. Sade found herself hounded by the paparazzi who, of course, wanted to know every intimate detail of her life.

"It started to feel like opening yourself up to everybody you'd ever sat next to on a bus," Sade stated. "Why would you do that?"[2]

After a ten year hiatus of sorts, to have and raise a daughter - Ila, age 13 - and find peace with a new beau, Ian Watts in the English countryside, Sade released "Soldier of Love" in February 2010 with first-week sales of over half a million copies in the United States.

The core group of Matthewman, Denman, Hale and Sade reconvened in 2008 for the first time since wrapping up the "Lovers Rock" tour in 2001. At Peter Gabriel's Real World studio, they worked on the new album for close to a year, rediscovering old ties and friendships along the way.

Sade treats those closest to her like family, even being called "Auntie Sade" by some. She has been generous with her money, buying her mother a house, setting up her brother in the states and investing in the business ventures of some of her friends. But she wants no recognition for her generosity, preferring to avoid the power issues some would infer into the gestures.

Although her parents separated when Sade was young, they kept in touch and even spoke of getting back together again, though it didn't happen.

"My mother left my father because she found it impossible to live with him, although they loved each other very much," Sade has said. "It was hard for my mother because he was the man of her life. On her wedding day my father gave her a red rose and when he died she threw it in his grave. She'd kept it for 30 years. That was the moment I realised how deeply she cared for him." [2]

At the age of 51 with an estimated net worth of 30 million pounds, Sade's life seems to be set. Truth be told, she doesn't have to record any more music if she doesn't want to.

But she continues to write songs and record, particularly if she feels she has something to say. Sade has never been one to make an album just to make the money.

"Is it still worth it?" Sade asks. "I think it is. After every album, I think, 'Right that's it, no more.' But how lucky am I at my age still to be doing this without any outside pressure?" [2]

And how lucky, indeed, are we that Sade is still as smooth as ever.

Sources:

[1] Sade website
[2] Times online