1980s The musical group Sade was formed in London in 1982, by members of the
Latin soul band Pride.
Sade Adu,
Stuart Matthewman (sax),
Paul Denman (bass), and Paul Anthony Cooke (drums), formed the break-away group and began to write its material. They named the band after lead singer Sade Adu, and made their debut performance in December 1982 at
Ronnie Scott's Club in London in support of Pride. In May 1983, the band performed its first US show at
Danceteria in New York City. Andrew Hale joined on keyboards in mid-1983; Cooke was replaced on drums by Dave Early in early 1984. Sade received more attention from the media and record companies than Pride had, and eventually separated from that group altogether. On 18 October 1983, the singer signed with
CBS Records (which was absorbed by its parent label,
Epic Records, in 1986). As singer and band established themselves, Epic Records printed "Pronounced Shar-day" on the record labels of the band's releases, which led to mispronunciation in
rhotic North American accents. In February 1984, Sade released its first single, "
Your Love Is King", which became a Top Ten hit. A second single, "
When Am I Going to Make a Living" barely made the Top 40, but the band's debut album,
Diamond Life, was released in July 1984 and peaked at No. 2. and was later included in the book
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The band embarked on its first major UK tour, augmented by Dave Early (drums), Martin Ditcham (percussion), Terry Bailey (trumpet) and Gordon Matthewman (trombone). A third single, "
Smooth Operator", was released from the album with a video directed by
Julien Temple. The single became its first US hit in spring 1985, propelling the album in the US Top Ten. Also in 1985, the band were nominated for two
MTV Video Music Awards—"
Best Female Video" and "
Best New Artist". On 13 July 1985, Sade performed at the
Live Aid at
Wembley Stadium in London. Sade Adu became the only African-born artist to appear in front of the live audience of 75,000 and an estimated worldwide television audience of 1.4 billion in 170 countries. In late 1985, Sade released its second album,
Promise, which peaked at No. 1 in both the UK and the US. It was certified double platinum by the
BPI in the UK, and quadruple platinum in the US. In 1986, Adu was nominated for an
American Music Awards for Favorite
Soul/
R&B Female Video Artist, and the band won a
Grammy Award for
Best New Artist. On 28 June 1986, after touring for the album, the band performed at the Artists Against Apartheid Concert in the Freedom Festival on
Clapham Common in London. In 1987 the band was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for
Promise. Sade's third album,
Stronger Than Pride, was released in May 1988. The album peaked at No. 3 in the UK and has been certified platinum by the
BPI. It was preceded by the single "Paradise", which made the UK Top 30 and US Top 20. and peaked at No. 10 in the UK and was certified Gold by the BPI. In 1993, the band recorded a cover of the
Percy Mayfield song, "
Please Send Me Someone to Love", for the
Academy Award-winning film
Philadelphia, before launching the
Love Deluxe world tour. Joining the band were Leroy Osbourne (vocals), Gordon Hunte (guitar), Trevor Murrell (drums), Karl Vanden Bossche (percussion), and
Rick Braun (trumpet). The 1994
Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group was awarded to Sade for "
No Ordinary Love", featured in the 1993 film
Indecent Proposal. In November the group released its first compilation album,
The Best of Sade. The album was another Top Ten hit in both the UK and US and was certified Platinum and Quadruple-Platinum respectively. In 1996 Hale, Denman, and Matthewman formed their own band as a side project,
Sweetback, and released a self-titled album.
2000s In October 2000, Sade Adu came out of retirement to perform at the prestigious
MOBO Awards, her first live performance in several years. The following month, Sade released its fifth studio album,
Lovers Rock, its first album in eight years. The album peaked at number 18 in the UK (its only studio album not to make the top 10) though was certified Gold by the
BPI.
Billboard Charts contacted the site's owner to confirm the release date and was told the date was official, but soon after, the date was removed. Sade fans discovered that the registered owner of the site was Thomas Roman, a web developer, freelance
digital marketing and
SEO specialist. Roman utilized the buzz around the album's release to drive traffic to his website and earn money on
pay per click advertisements. To date it is not known how he predicted a date so close to the actual release of their first single and studio album in a decade. Sade's sixth studio album
Soldier of Love was released worldwide on 8 February 2010, the band's first album of new material in ten years. Following the release of the "
Soldier of Love" single on 8 December 2009, the track debuted at number 11 on the Urban Hot AC chart, making it the highest debut of the decade and the third-highest all-time on the Urban Hot AC chart. "Soldier of Love" debuted at number 5 on the Smooth Jazz airplay chart and became the first-ever vocal to hit number 1 on the Smooth Jazz Top 20 Countdown. The album stayed at No. 1 in the US for three weeks. The group released the second single from the album, "
Babyfather", in April 2010, followed by a video in May. On 13 April 2010, the band performed "Babyfather" and "
The Sweetest Taboo" on the US TV show
Dancing With The Stars. In September 2010 the group announced the first dates of its global tour,
Sade Live, to begin in April 2011. In 2011, Sade received its fourth Grammy Award (
Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals) for
Soldier of Love, and released a second
greatest hits album,
The Ultimate Collection, which made the UK Top Ten. On 13 July 2018, Sade bandmate
Stuart Matthewman told
Rated R&B in an interview that the band is in the studio working on its seventh studio album. He said, "We're working on a new album. When we're happy, then we'll let everyone else hear it."
2020s A remastered vinyl boxset of Sade's six albums, titled
This Far, was released on 9 October 2020. Their engineer and co-producer,
Mike Pela, died in 2022. The band reportedly began recording new material for a seventh album in the summer 2022 at the rebuilt
Miraval Studios (where they previously recorded
Promise and
Stronger Than Pride). ==Band members==