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Sade Adu is
arguably Nigeria’s most successful musician; having sold over 60
million records; and with two Grammy awards to show for her efforts as
an entertainer, songstress and bandleader.

Born on the January
16, 1959 in Ibadan, Oyo-State, she first came to the limelight in 1984
when her band ‘Sade’, comprising musicians Andrew Hale, Stuart
Mathewman and Paul Denman released their debut album ‘Diamond Life’.
The album came packed with hit tracks such as ‘Smooth Operator’, ‘Hang
on to your Love’ and ‘Your Love Is King’. The band won a Grammy award
in the Best New Artist category in 1985. Her impressive career received
another boost in 1986 when she released ‘Promise’, which had the
worldwide hit single ‘The Sweetest Taboo’, making her and the band the
largest selling debutant of British origin. She is the most successful
solo female artist in British history; and was one of the iconic
performers of the historic Live Aid concert, held at Wemble Stadium in
1985.

In 1992, she
released the album ‘Love Deluxe’ that included tracks such as No
Ordinary Love. The year 1994 saw the release of ‘The Best of Sade’, a
compilation of hit singles produced by the songstress and her band over
the years. After an eight-year hiatus she came out with ‘Lover’s Rock’
(2000), which won a Grammy for “Best Vocal”. Her latest effort,
‘Soldier of Love’, released last year, has enjoyed a huge success,
despite the fact that nothing had been heard from Sade in recording
terms for a decade. ‘Soldier of Love’ topped the music charts in 14
countries, selling 1.5 million copies worldwide in its first week of
release, 500,000 of it in the US alone, where the singer is revered as
an inimitable icon, especially among the Hip-Hop community.

Sade has insisted
that she is not in a hurry to release albums after album. “I only talk
when there’s something to be said,” she once remarked. She was honoured
with the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II, in
2002. Her visit to the palace to receive the medal, is reputed to be
the last public appearance made by the famously reclusive singer whose
allure and mystique never seems to wane.

Sade was well
connected with her roots in Ikere- Ekiti until the demise of her
father, Bisi Adu, a professor of Economics in 1986. Her mother Anne
Hayes was an English nurse. The young Sade and her elder brother Banji
were relocated to England by their mother when the relationship between
the parents broke down. Thus the future Grammy award winner grew up in
rural England, Essex to be precise, in the South East. She came
face-to-face with racism, and learnt how defend herself with jabs of
her own.

Her successful
musical career has been at variance with her private life. Her marriage
to the Spanish film director Carlos Pliego ended in the mid nineties;
she had her only childer, Ila, with Jamaican songwriter Bob Morgan in
1996. Sade now lives in the English countryside with Ian Watts, a
former Royal Marine. She told the British press last year that her
mother introduces Watts as “‘Sade’s current boyfriend’, like he was on
a conveyor belt, or something.”

As Sade turns 52 today Sunday, January 16, 2011, this is a worthy tribute to Nigeria’s greatest gift to Rhythm and Blues.