About Sade

Helen Folasade Adu was born on January 16, 1959 in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Her middle name, Folasade, means "honour confers a crown". Her parents, Adebisi Adu, a Nigerian lecturer in economics of Yoruba background, and Anne Hayes, an English district nurse, met in London, married in 1955 and moved to Nigeria. Her parents separated, however, and Anne Hayes returned to England, taking four-year-old Sade and older brother Banji with her to live with their grandparents near Colchester, Essex. When Sade was 11 years old, she moved to Holland-on-Sea, Essex, to live with her mother. After completing her education at Clacton County High School at age 18 she moved to London and studied fashion design at Saint Martin's School of Art. Following an eight-year hiatus the band released their fifth studio album, Lovers Rock, on 13 November 2000 and received positive reviews from music critics. The album reached number 18 on the UK Albums Chart, number-three on the US Billboard 200, and has since been certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), having sold 3.9 million copies in the United States by February 2010. On 27 February 2002, the album earned Sade the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album and the lead single "By Your Side" was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Although the single lost out to Nelly Furtado's "I'm Like a Bird", it has been listed as the 48th greatest love song of all time by VH1. To promote the album Adu and the band embarked on their fifth concert tour entitled Lovers Rock Tour. The tour was announced via the band's website in April 2001. The announcement stated the tour would begin in the summer of 2001 with 30 shows. Initial dates were rescheduled due to extended rehearsal time. The shows sold well, with many stops adding additional shows. In August 2001, the tour was extended by eight weeks due to ticket demand. Deemed by many critics as a comeback tour, it marked the band's first performances since 1994 and lasted until 2011. Although many believed the trek would expand to other countries, this did not come to fruition. With over 40 shows, it became the 13th biggest tour in North America, earning over 26 million. Following the tour the band released their first live album, Lovers Live on 5 February 2002 by Epic Records. Lovers Live reached number-ten on the US Billboard 200 and number 51 on the UK Albums Chart, the band's first album to miss the top twenty in the UK. The album was certified gold by the RIAA on 7 March 2002, having sold US sales of 562,000 copies, while the DVD was certified platinum on 30 January 2003 for shipping 100,000 copies. Following the release of Lovers Rock Adu took a ten-year hiatus, during which she raised her daughter and moved to the Caribbean. During this time she made a rare public appearance for an award ceremony that took place in 2002 to accept an Order of the British Empire (OBE) at Buckingham Palace for services to music. In 2002, she appeared on the Red Hot Organization album, Red Hot + Riot, a compilation CD in tribute to the music of fellow Nigerian musician, Fela Kuti. She recorded a remix of her hit single, "By Your Side" for the album and was billed as a co-producer.