Sade Adu is a 64-year-old British singer, songwriter, and composer. She is best known as the lead singer of her own band. She is one of the most successful female British artists in history. Sade is famous for their popular songs “Smooth Operator”, “No Ordinary Love”, and “Soldier of Love”.

Net Worth of Sade Adu

Sade Adu is a legendary woman whose name is inscribed in the historical record. She is a top-rated UK singer, actress, and songwriter who has outperformed everyone else. Sade is well-known for her avant-garde music and art, which sets her apart from the crowd. She is a tremendously acclaimed and decorated celebrity with a massive net worth. Sade has an estimated net worth of $70 million dollars.

Sade Adu Parents

Her parents are Adebisi Adu, a Nigerian lecturer in economics of Yoruba descent, and Anne Hayes, an English district nurse; they met in London, married in 1955, and relocated to Nigeria.

Sade’s parents divorced when she was four. Anne Hayes then went to England, taking Sade and her older brother Banji to live with their grandparents near Colchester, Essex. Sade moved to Holland-on-Sea, Essex when she was 11 years old to live with her mother.

Age and Education

The real name of Sade is Helen Folasade Adu. The meaning of her middle name, Folasade, is “honor earns the crown.” The British singer was born on 16 January 1959 in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, but is a resident of Ekiti State. Sade’s zodiac sign is Capricorn.

Similarly, she attended Clacton County High School and Colchester Institute till 18, when she moved to London to pursue fashion design at Saint Martin’s School of Art.

Personal Life

In the 1980s, Sade and her partner Robert Elms squatted in Tottenham. Sade dated English writer and broadcaster Robert Elms in the 1980s.

In 1989, she married Carlos Scola Pliego, a Spanish film director. In 1995, their relationship ended. Sade moved to Jamaica in the late 1990s to live with Jamaican music producer Bob Morgan, and their child was born on July 21, 1996.

Sade’s 2010 song “Babyfather” included her child. Sade and Morgan later divorced, and she has been married to former Royal Marine Ian Watts since 2007. She has a stepson as a result of this connection. Izaak Theo Adu, Sade’s son, came out as a transgender male on National Coming Out Day in 2016.

In a message posted online in September 2019, Izaak praised his mother for her support during his transition. Sade moved to the Gloucestershire countryside in 2005 and bought a decrepit cottage to renovate. Sade is not often available for interviews.

Height and Weight

She weighs 123.46 pounds and 56 kilograms despite her height of 5′ 7′′ in feet and inches and 170.2 cm in centimeters. Her eyes are dark brown and her hair is black.

Sade Adu Career

Sade joined the British band Pride as a backing singer after completing a three-year fashion design course. During her time with Pride, she formed a creative connection with the band’s guitarist and saxophonist Stuart Matthewman. Meanwhile, Sade’s solo performances of “Smooth Operator” drew the attention of record labels.

Sade and Matthewman split from Pride in 1983 and formed the band Sade with three other instrumentalists. Sade played its debut US gig in a New York City nightclub in May of that year, and the band signed with Epic Records the following year.

Sade and “Diamond Life”

Sade began production on its debut album, “Diamond Life,” soon after signing a record deal. The album, which was recorded entirely at London’s The Power Plant in six weeks, was a huge success when it was released in 1984. It reached number two on the UK Album Chart and sold over 1.2 million copies in the country; it later received the Brit Award for Best British Album in 1985.

“Diamond Life” was also a worldwide success, reaching number one in several countries and entering the top ten in the United States. With over six million copies sold worldwide, the album became one of the bestselling debut records of the decade, as well as the bestselling debut of all time by a British female vocalist.

“Diamond Life” yielded two successful singles. The lead single, “Your Love Is King,” peaked at number six on the UK Singles Chart. Another single, “Smooth Operator,” became the album’s most successful hit in the United States, peaking at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Adult Contemporary chart.

“Promise” and Further Success

In 1985, the band released their second album, “Promise,” which went to number one in the UK and became Sade’s first record to top the US Billboard 200. “Promise” yielded two singles: “Never as Good as the First Time” and “The Sweetest Taboo,” the latter of which spent six months on the US Hot 100. Following this accomplishment, the band won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1986. “Promise” went on to sell four million copies in the United Kingdom and was certified four times platinum.

Sade took a brief break from her band to make her acting debut in “Absolute Beginners,” a British musical film released in 1986. The singer appeared in the movie and contributed vocals to the soundtrack. Sade returned to the studio after this period and delivered her third album with the band, “Stronger Than Pride,” in 1988. It was another commercial success for the band, as it was certified three times platinum in the United States and spawned four hit songs.

“Lovers Rock” and Beyond

Sade’s fifth studio album, “Lovers Rock,” was released in 2000, after an eight-year break. Sade won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album for “Lovers Rock,” which peaked at number three on the US Billboard 200.

Following that, there was a tour and a live album, both of which were hugely popular. Sade then took another break, this time for ten years, to raise her kid in the Caribbean. During this time, she made a rare public appearance to accept the Order of the British Empire at Buckingham Palace. Moreover, Sade Adu is associated with famous celebrities such as Antwon Tanner, Paul Ratliff, Kirsten Vangsness, and many more.

Sade returned with her sixth studio album, “Soldier of Love,” in 2010, becoming the group’s first record to start at number one on the Billboard 200. “Babyfather” and “The Moon and the Sky” were two of the album’s singles. Meanwhile, the title tune won the Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

Later that year, Sade composed two songs for film soundtracks: “Flower of the Universe” for Disney’s production of “A Wrinkle in Time,” and “The Big Unknown” for Steve McQueen’s “Widows.”

Awards and Nominations

Sade was given an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2002 for services to music, and claimed her accolade was “a great gesture to myself and all black women in England”. She was promoted to Commander of the same Order (CBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for her contributions to music. In 1986, she became the first Nigerian (African) to win a Grammy Award for Best New Artist.