SOUL sensation Sade Adu barely looks a day over the age we first saw her, as a member of iconic 80s and 90s group, Sade.
The band, who is named after the Nigerian-British singer, 65, released their seminal debut album, 1984’s Diamond Life which will be celebrating its 40th anniversary this July.
The influential singer, 65, is considered one of the UK’s most influential female singers of all time.
The singer, who is known for her youthful glow, landed onto the music scene with her own refreshing blend of UK Soul, Jazz and Pop music.
Their debut single Your Love Is King reached number six back in February 1984. The album would go on to sell an astounding 10 million records worldwide and receive commercial and critical acclaim.
The influential album earned the popular group their first and only Brit award in 1985 for British Album of the Year.
The trendsetting group have received a total of four Grammy’s since forming back in 1982, earning their first Grammy for Best New Artist in 1986.
The chart-toppers would receive their second Grammy-win in 1994 for their R&B hit No Ordinary Love, which earned them a Grammy-award for Best R&B performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.
The pop group’s penchant for success would follow them into the new millennium, winning Best Pop Vocal Album for their 2002 album Lovers Rock.
They would win Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for their critically acclaimed comeback album 2010’s Soldier of Love.
Sade’s six studio albums have sold over 50 million copies worldwide.
In 2002, Sade was awarded an OBE in the 2002 Queen’s New Years Honours List for her services to the music industry.
Additionally, the iconic singer was awarded the CBE in the 2017 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for her services to music.
The Smooth Operator singer is often referred to as being reclusive for spending years, and often decades in-between releasing music, out of the spotlight.
Decades after the peak of Sade’s success in the 80s and 90s, many fans are still taking to social media, puzzled by the singer’s age-defying appearance in her rare public outings.
One Instagram-user left a comment under a Sade-related post stating: “I could look at her forever, she just doesn’t age! So beautiful still.”
However, the hitmaker has often ventured off into side-projects in between releasing music. In 1986, she made her acting debut in the movie Absolute Beginners.
During her first hiatus in the 1990s, Sade would give birth to her first and only child in July 1996, son Izaak Theo Adu, 27, who she had with Jamaican music producer Bob Morgan.
Sade had been with the producer from 1994 to 1999.
Sade has been with her most recent partner, Ian Watts, a former Royal Marine who she has been in a relationship with since 2007.
She dedicated her song Babyfather in 2010 the son she shares with Bob. Sade has always been supportive of her son who came out as transgender back in 2016.
In 2019, Izaak posted a heartfelt Instagram caption alongside a picture of them both, Izaak said: “It’s been a long hard road but we did it! We are coming home.”
He continued: “Thank you for fighting with me to complete the man I am! I love you so much. Queen of queen.”
The 90s hitmaker has also acquired celebrity fans such as Beyonce, 42, Prince and Drake, 37, who famously has two tattoos of Sade on on his torso.
Her trademark slicked back ponytail and bright red lipstick has been the fashion inspiration for many fashion magazines and designers, in spite of the artists last album being 2010’s Soldier Of Love.
American film director Ava DuVernay, 51, managed to get the reclusive star to record her first song in eight years.
This resulted in 2018’s critically acclaimed song Flower of the Universe, for her Disney film A Wrinkle In Time.
In 2020, Sade made a rare public appearance in that year’s August issue of British Vogue, where she was photographed with her goddaughter Leah at her farm in West Country, where they had been social distancing along the legendary singer’s partner Ian.
The Love Is King vocalist’s mother, who is a nurse by the name of Anne Hayes, and their dog Jesse James, had also been in the songstress’s bubble during the lockdown.
