Sade Adu is one of Britain’s most successful yet enigmatic musical exports. The Nigerian-born singer has sold approximately 75 million albums worldwide while maintaining an intentionally low profile, which is rare in today’s celebrity-driven culture. Born Helen Folasade Adu in Ibadan, Nigeria, on January 16, 1959, she’s become synonymous with sophisticated soul music.
Remarkably, throughout Sade’s career, she has released just six studio albums since 1984 and has emerged from the shadows only when she has something meaningful to say. Her most recent appearance came in November 2024 with “Young Lion,” a personal tribute to her transgender son that marked her first original music in six years.
Biography
Sade’s story begins in Ibadan, where her father, Adebisi “Bisi” Adu, a Nigerian economics lecturer of Yoruba heritage, met her mother, Anne Hayes, an English district nurse, in London. The couple married in 1955 and moved to Nigeria, but their relationship didn’t last. When Sade was just four years old, her parents separated, and Anne brought her daughter and her elder brother, Banji, back to England.
They settled near Colchester, Essex, where Sade attended Clacton County High School before continuing to Colchester Institute. At 18, she moved to London to study fashion design at Saint Martin’s School of Art (now Central Saint Martins). She wasn’t planning a music career at all. After graduating, she worked as a menswear designer and did occasional modeling to pay the bills.
Music entered her life almost accidentally around 1980. She joined a Latin funk band called Arriva, where she co-wrote what would become her signature song, “Smooth Operator,” with guitarist Ray St. John. In 1981, she became a background singer for the eight-piece funk band Pride. It was within Pride that she formed a songwriting partnership with saxophonist Stuart Matthewman that would define her sound for decades.
Career
The band Sade made their debut at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London in December 1982. The original lineup featured Sade on vocals, Stuart Matthewman on saxophone and guitar, Paul Spencer Denman on bass, and Paul Anthony Cooke on drums. Record labels immediately wanted to sign Sade as a solo artist, but she refused to abandon her bandmates. After 18 months of negotiations, she signed with Epic Records on October 18, 1983, with the full band joining in 1984.
Their debut album “Diamond Life” was released in July 1984 and became the best-selling debut album by a British female artist. It moved over six million copies worldwide, peaked at number five in the US and number two in the UK, and earned a BRIT Award for Best British Album. “Smooth Operator” became their calling card, reaching number five on the Billboard Hot 100.
“Promise” was released in 1985 and topped both the UK and US charts, making Sade the first British female artist to achieve a number-one debut on the Billboard 200. That same year, she performed at Live Aid at Wembley Stadium as the only African-born artist at the event. The album’s “The Sweetest Taboo” spent six months on the Hot 100 and became another signature track.
The subsequent albums followed at leisurely intervals. “Stronger Than Pride” came in 1988, “Love Deluxe” in 1992, “Lovers Rock” in 2000, and “Soldier of Love” in 2010. Each went multi-platinum. “Love Deluxe” yielded “No Ordinary Love,” which won a Grammy after appearing in the 1993 film “Indecent Proposal.” “Soldier of Love” debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 502,000 copies in its first week.
Sade’s approach to releasing music has always prioritised quality over quantity. After 2010, she took another extended break before contributing two soundtrack singles in 2018: “Flower of the Universe” for Disney’s “A Wrinkle in Time” (at director Ava DuVernay’s personal request) and “The Big Unknown” for Steve McQueen’s film “Widows.”
In 2022, Billboard reported that Sade was the first artist to record at Brad Pitt’s renovated Miraval Studios in France, the same studio where the band recorded “Promise” and “Stronger Than Pride” in the 1980s. No album has emerged from these sessions yet, leaving fans hopeful but uncertain about a seventh studio album.
Her most significant recent release came on November 22, 2024: “Young Lion,” an emotional ballad dedicated to her son, Izaak, released as part of the Red Hot Organisation’s TRAИƧA compilation, which supports the transgender community.
Awards and Recognition
Sade has won four Grammy Awards, becoming the first Nigerian-born artist to receive the honour. She won Best New Artist in 1986, Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for “No Ordinary Love” in 1994, Best Pop Vocal Album for “Lovers Rock” in 2002, and the same category for “Soldier of Love” in 2011.
British honours followed her success. She was appointed OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 2002, receiving the insignia from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace. She called it “a great gesture to me and all black women in England.” In 2017, she was elevated to CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire).
Her songwriting received official recognition with induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on June 15, 2023, alongside Gloria Estefan, Snoop Dogg, and Jeff Lynne. She received her first Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomination in February 2024, though she wasn’t among the final inductees.
Personal Life
Sade has fiercely guarded her privacy throughout her career. Her relationship history spans four significant partnerships.
In the early 1980s, she lived with Robert Elms, an English writer and broadcaster for The Face magazine. They squatted together in North London in a converted fire station with no heating. The relationship eventually ended amicably, though Elms was instrumental in generating early media buzz for the band.
In 1989, she married Spanish filmmaker Carlos Scola Pliego in a castle ceremony on October 11. He’d worked as an assistant director on the James Bond film “Never Say Never Again.” They separated within about a year, though the divorce wasn’t finalised until 1995. Sade later called it “a very bad situation” that took five years to recover from emotionally.
In the late 1990s, she briefly lived in Jamaica with Bob Morgan, a Jamaican reggae producer who became the father of her only child. They never married, and the relationship eventually ended.
Since 2007, she’s been with Ian Watts, a former Royal Marine and fireman who later obtained a chemistry degree from Cambridge. Sade has described him as “The One” and affectionately called him “an educated thug.” They live together quietly in Gloucestershire.
Sade’s son, Izaak Theo Adu, was born on July 21, 1996. Izaak came out as transgender on National Coming Out Day in October 2016, documenting his transition journey publicly on social media. Sade stayed by his side during six months of recovery following phalloplasty in 2019. In September 2019, Izaak posted a touching tribute: “Thank you for staying by my side these past 6 months Mumma. Thank you for fighting with me to complete the man I am.” Izaak married Emily Margaret Shakeshaft in Hawaii on April 16, 2021.
Net Worth
Sade’s net worth is estimated between $40 million and $70 million. CelebrityNetWorth places her at $40 million, while other sources cite $70 million. The 2011 Sunday Times Rich List valued her wealth at £33 million. A realistic assessment places her net worth somewhere in this range.
She’s earned most of her wealth from album sales and touring. Official industry sources cite approximately 75 million worldwide album sales as of 2014, with 24.7 million certified US units. “Diamond Life” sold over seven million copies, while “Promise” moved 6.5 million. Her 2011 Soldier of Love World Tour grossed $53.1 million from 59 shows, ranking 10th on Billboard’s Top 25 Tours that year.
Her primary residence is a stone-built cottage near Stroud, Gloucestershire, which she purchased in 2005 and extensively renovated. She previously maintained a Georgian house near Highbury Fields in North London. Claims about multiple properties in New York, Switzerland, and elsewhere remain largely unverified by credible sources.