[b]"Just as we've got used to the idea that Adele is now a massive star in America, triumphing at the Grammys for the second album running, waving at her mum and crying through her mascara that "the girl done good", it transpires there is someone bigger. A British artist whose staggering sales have pushed Adele down the ranking to merely the second biggest-selling British musician in the 2012 US money list.

What's really surprising is that the No 1 British act in America isn't Elton John or Paul McCartney or any of those obvious British behemoths abroad (although Irish band U2 did come in higher and Coldplay haven't released anything recently). Nor is it a young stealth interloper such as Mumford & Sons. It is, in fact, Sade, who many of you will have forgotten decades ago, to be reminded only when Your Love Is King and The Sweetest Taboo pop up on daytime radio, or as the soothing soundtrack to buying shoes. (Indeed I did once hear a Sade album, sometimes dismissed as elevator music, being played in a hotel lift.)

In the US, her 2010 comeback, which led to a new album, a greatest hits album and a huge tour, was a much bigger deal than it was in the UK. Perhaps it makes sense that Sade's music would find a healthy audience in America, where many original fans were unaware, given her mixed race looks and her soulful style, that she was British not American. Her grown-up brand of pop music – understated, fatalistic, with that sultry voice and her astonishing almond-shaped eye – gave her a sophisticated appeal. But not much of a public persona. Indeed, I was surprised to discover that she is now happily installed in a modest cottage in the Cotswolds with her boyfriend and teenage daughter. (Most of us didn't even know she had one.) In her home country, Sade is something of a comfortable heritage act; her lifestyle is hardly tabloid fodder.

Yet in America, she is a star. Brad Wavra, senior vice-president of touring at Live Nation, the world's biggest show promoter, declared Sade to be a "rare jewel. It feels like I'm working with Miles Davis, Elvis Presley and the Beatles all rolled into one." Rolling Stone described her new studio album, Soldier of Love, as "unimpeachably excellent" while Billboard said: "It's been 10 years since Sade released an album, but be forewarned – the giant has awoken." People magazine succinctly summed up Sade's enduring appeal as "the voice of comfort to the wounded heart". All of which led to her — or rather, the four-piece band that bears her name — earning $16.4m from combined album and ticket sales last year.

Of course, Adele had to cancel her American tour because of throat surgery, which means her takings were unexpectedly diminished, but even so the average British music fan probably wouldn't have expected to see Sade on the list anywhere at all. She comes in sixth, after Taylor Swift, U2, Kenny Chesney, Lady Gaga and Lil Wayne — a fairly broad church of country, rock, rap and pop. They are followed by Bon Jovi, Celine Dion and Jason Aldean (no, us neither), and then, at No 10, Adele.

Given that Sade is one of the least public British popstars we've ever had, does her longevity put paid to the idea that with success comes a pact with the devil of celebrity? The big promo campaigns; the paparazzi; letting the gossipmongers feed on your public romances and your private pain – none of this really sounds like her. Sade's songs do speak of pain; if not battle cries, they are cries from somebody who has battled. But they are gentle, smooth, not seemingly designed to conquer the world or fill a stadium. The music industry still talks in hallowed tones about "cracking America", something Adele has done with huge impact, but when Sade did it, she wasn't so obviously British. She didn't court the chatshow circuit with a gobby accent in the way that Adele does, so her speaking voice went largely unheard.

In fact, she has given a couple of interviews in recent years. She told Spin magazine her mother struggled a lot, having married in Nigeria "and then come home to England with two brown children and a suitcase in the early 60s". Sade's father, a lecturer, remained in Nigeria, where Sade lived until the age of 11. "I am fairly classless because it is very difficult to class someone who comes from a mixed marriage. There isn't a class structure in Nigeria, there's a tribal structure and prestige as far as money is concerned." She told Ebony magazine that her partner, Ian, "was a Royal Marine, then a fireman, then a Cambridge graduate in chemistry. I always said that if I could just find a guy who could chop wood and had a nice smile it didn't bother me if he was an aristocrat or a thug as long as he was a good guy. I've ended up with an educated thug."

It seems she quite enjoys being able to live the quiet life in England, while enjoying fame overseas – a lot like Iron Maiden, who earn millons every year touring like rock gods in South America and Asia, but are seen as a thing of the past in England. Bruce Dickinson says he likes flying a private jet to a show in Rio but then riding a bike to the pub in Chiswick.

Says Paul Simper, a journalist who worked with her extensively in the 1980s: "None of the other British solo women from Sade's time, such as Alison Moyet or Carmel, made any impact in the US at all. Sade was unique in that respect. But her Englishness was never a selling point. CBS just wanted to sign her and build her up to be somebody like Whitney, get her a professional studio band, but she resolutely stuck to her guns and stayed with the band from London she'd always had. And she still has – she's always done it on her terms. Being successful in America didn't involve any compromise or sounding any more American; her sound was always the same throughout."

And that sound has stood the test of time. Songs like Smooth Operator, No Ordinary Love and Love Is Stronger Than Pride do now feel like classics. The way she sings is the way her career has turned out – in no hurry, not about to change for anybody. Her songs are in it for the long game, and so is she."[/b]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/mar/13/why-sade-bigger-adele-us

Sade


Adele
[img]http://1.bp..com/-jZZLfWkL1PA/T0u8O4uGHyI/AAAAAAAACKw/6uvqobqE_W8/s1600/Adele1.jpg[/img]

Maybe because Sade has been there longer (?)

Give Adele just 2 more years.

And the only place I head about Sade is on NL abeg. Never listened to her songs.

Ileke-IdI:
Maybe because Sade has been there longer (?)

Give Adele just 2 more years.

And the only place I head about Sade is on NL abeg. Never listened to her songs.

You have a point Sade has been around longer for decades now, and Adele just came out so I would like to see the people who wrote this article bring this up again in a few years to compare them because if Adele keeps up with her success for years to come she could surpass Sade.

When it comes to their music, I am actually a fan of Adele and Sade, and love their music but based on my observation people know more and are more intuned with Adele now over Sade, majority of the people who talk about her are from the older generation but adele all generations are talking about her and liking her music.

The one thing I see Sade has over Adele which is a fact is that she is timeless, she has lasted over the decades past the 80's and with the type of music she sings. Any time Sade has a tour, her tickets sell out up till this day; I wonder if Adele can do that when she reaches Sade's age.

It's not necessarily who's been out longer. Sade is a timeless hotcake. Because no one talks about her doesn't mean she's gone. This is a woman who releases an album once every decade. I remember when she toured last year. I couldn't afford her tickets lol. The highest seats, as in the ones where you need binoculars, were selling for like $200-$250. I no fit o. Adele can't do that. Sorry. Sade is in a league of her own.

ogugua88: It's not necessarily who's been out longer. Sade is a timeless hotcake. Because no one talks about her doesn't mean she's gone. This is a woman who releases an album once every decade. I remember when she toured last year. I couldn't afford her tickets lol. The highest seats, as in the ones where you need binoculars, were selling for like $200-$250. I no fit o. Adele can't do that. Sorry. Sade is in a league of her own.

Very well said! Nothing more to add, nothing to subtract. Sade is indeed in a league of her own. I don't listen to Adele because nowadays all this successful music artists have sold their soul to you-know-who. In a few years down the line, they begin to die mysteriously before they even get to age 60.

"Unimpeachably excellent" sums up Sade and her music. She's in a class of her own. But then, I don't expect these ignorant kids on NL to know anything about that.

dasparrow:

Very well said! Nothing more to add, nothing to subtract. Sade is indeed in a league of her own. I don't listen to Adele because nowadays all this successful music artists have sold their soul to you-know-who. In a few years down the line, they begin to die mysteriously before they even get to age 60.

Nobody can deny that Adele's music in America is reigning today and everybody likes her, her music is a breath of fresh air from some of the garbage I hear in the radio today; and she just started out so we need to give her a few years based on what the article is saying but the test for Adele which you sort of brought out is can she last decades like Sade?, can she sell out tours like Sade?, can her music be timeless like Sade? I think she can sell out tours like Sade but last for decades I really don't know because it isn't possible now a days for singers to last long like it was in Sade's and etc times, the maxi-mun they can get is a decade or 15 years now, so that is a given unless things change but can she be timeless like Sade I doubt it

apples and oranges.