Helen Folasade Adu, born January 16, 1959, professionally known as Sade Adu or simply Sade, is a Nigerian-born British singer, songwriter, and actress best known as the lead singer of her own band. She is one of the most successful British female artists in history.
Wiki Profile
| Full Name: | Helen Folasade Adu |
| Date of Birth: | January 16, 1959 (age 63 years old) |
| Place of Birth | Ibadan |
| State of Origin: | Oyo State |
| Nationality: | Nigerian-British |
| Occupation: | Singer & Actress |
| Net Worth: | $70 million |
| Husband: | Carlos Scola Pliego (div.) |
Early Life and Education
Helen Folasade Adu was born in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, but is a resident of Ekiti State.
Folasade, her middle name, means “wealth confers a crown.” Sade Adu’s father Adebisi Adu, a Nigerian economics lecturer of Yoruba descent, and her mother Anne Hayes, an English district nurse, met in London, married in 1955, and relocated to Nigeria.
Sade’s parents divorced when she was four years old. Sade and her older brother Banji were then taken to live with their grandparents near Colchester, Essex, by Anne Hayes.
Sade moved to Holland-on-Sea, Essex, with her mother when she was 11 years old.
At the age of 18, she travelled to London to study fashion design at Saint Martin’s School of Art after finishing her studies at Clacton County High School and Colchester Institute.
Career
Sade Adu is the lead vocalist of her own band and a Nigerian-born British singer, songwriter, and actress.
She is generally cited as an impact on contemporary music as one of the most successful British female performers in history.
Her contribution to music was recognized in the United Kingdom with an Officer of the Order of the British Empire award in 2002, and she was promoted to Commander in the 2017 Birthday Honours.
Sade was born in Ibadan, Nigeria, and spent part of his childhood in Essex, England.
Prior to joining the band Pride in the early 1980s, she studied at Saint Martin’s School of Art in London and garnered some reputation as a fashion designer and part-time model.
She formed the band Sade after attaining fame as a musician and signed a recording contract with Epic Records in 1983.
The band released Diamond Life a year later, which went on to become one of the best-selling albums of the decade and the best-selling debut by a British female vocalist.
Sade sang at the Live Aid charity performance at Wembley Stadium in July 1985, and she participated in the film Absolute Beginners the following year.
After the birth of Sade’s kid, the band went on sabbatical following the release of their third and fourth albums, Stronger Than Pride (1988) and Love Deluxe (1992), while the vocalist received extensive media attention for unfounded claims of mental health and addiction difficulties.
After an eight-year hiatus from recording, the band reformed in 1999 and released Lovers Rock in 2000. The album included mellower tones and pop tunes, as opposed to the jazz-inspired inflections of their prior work.
The band subsequently went on another hiatus, not producing music for ten years until Soldier of Love was released.
Following the release of that album, the band went on hiatus for the third time, releasing only two songs (“Flower of the Universe” for Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time’s soundtrack, and “The Big Unknown” for Steve McQueen’s film Widows’ soundtrack) since.
Sade’s music has been described as a “dear friend” and an inspiration by American artist Beyoncé.
Sade was praised by the late singer Aaliyah because she “stays true to her style no matter what… she’s a fantastic musician, an amazing performer… and I truly love her.”
Sade has been regarded as a vocal influence by American R&B singer Brandy.
Greg Puciato, a heavy metal singer, has also cited her as an inspiration.
After a good drive in 2019, Spanish Formula One driver Carlos Sainz Jr. established a practice of singing the chorus of “Smooth Operator” as a celebration, to the point that it became a running joke among motorsport fans and an unofficial Formula One anthem.
Sade Audu Net Worth
Sade Audu is a Nigerian born-British singer and songwriter with a net worth of $70 million. She is also an actress who has starred in several films.
Personal Life
Sade and her partner Robert Elms squatted in Tottenham in the 1980s.
She married Carlos Scola Pliego, a Spanish film director, in 1989. Their relationship terminated in 1995.
Sade traveled to the Caribbean in the late 1990s to live with Jamaican music producer Bob Morgan, and gave birth to their kid on July 21, 1996.
Sade’s song “Babyfather” included her child in 2010. Sade and Morgan later divorced, and she has been married to Ian Watts, a former Royal Marine, since 2007.
She has a stepson from this relationship. Sade’s child, Izaak Theo Adu, came out as a transgender male on National Coming Out Day in 2016.
Izaak thanked his mother for her support during his transition in a message uploaded online in September 2019.
Sade relocated to the Gloucestershire countryside in 2005, where she purchased a dilapidated cottage to restore. Sade is rarely available for interviews.
