Sade
Helen Folasade Adu, known globally as Sade, was born in Nigeria to a Nigerian father and an English mother. After her parents separated when she was four, her mother moved the family back to England. Following high school, Sade moved to London to study fashion design, but her career took a pivotal turn when she joined the British band Pride as a backup singer. Her magnetic stage presence quickly stole the spotlight. By 1983, the group had evolved and rebranded simply as Sade. Their popularity exploded almost instantly; for their debut performance at London’s Heaven nightclub, the demand was so high that 1,000 fans had to be turned away at the door. Later that year, she signed with Epic Records. The band’s debut album, Diamond Life, became an international sensation, reaching number one in several countries and the top ten in the U.S., where it sold over four million copies. They followed this success in 1985 with Promise, which topped both the UK and U.S. charts—marking their first n...