djzyonseven
Helen Folasade Adu. Sade Adu.
Or simply Sade.
Whatever you call her, just understand that she’s easily one of my Top 10 artists of all time.
Period. ❤️
Sade has had my ear since 1984 when Diamond Life entered my musical world.
And once she got in there, she never left.
When I decided to do another Album Blast for The Soundtrack of Who I Became, I thought picking a Sade album would be easy.
Child…NO! 😂
I went through Diamond Life from 1984, Promise from 1985, Stronger Than Pride from 1988, Love Deluxe from 1992, Lovers Rock from 2000 and Soldier of Love from 2010.
I couldn’t do it.
Every one of those albums represents a different shade of Sade, and every one is a work of art.
Picking my favorite Sade song is hard enough.
Asking me to choose one album?
Now you’re doing too much. 😂
Way too much.🙄
So I cheated.
And I’m completely comfortable with that decision. 😎
I chose The Ultimate Collection, released in 2011.
This two disc, 29 song collection gives me the best of the Sade world.
Your Love Is King, Smooth Operator, The Sweetest Taboo, Is It a Crime, Paradise, Nothing Can Come Between Us, No Ordinary Love, Kiss of Life, Cherish the Day, By Your Side, King of Sorrow, Soldier of Love and so much more. 🎶
And those aren’t just songs to me.
Sade lived on my Slow Jam mixtapes.
She lived in my Quiet Storm world.
She made the transition from cassette tapes and CDs to my digital library, and today she’s still sitting comfortably in my Spotify and YouTube Music playlists.
Some artists belong to a particular period of your life.
Sade somehow travels with you through all of them. 🌙🎧
I’ve always heard her music as this beautiful mixture of R&B, soul and jazz.
Smooth, sophisticated, sensual and intentionally understated.
Nobody has to scream.
Nobody has to oversing.
Nobody is chasing whatever happens to be hot this week.
That’s the magic.
And technically, Sade isn’t just Sade Adu.
It’s the band of Sade Adu, Stuart Matthewman, Andrew Hale and Paul Spencer Denman.
That musical chemistry is a huge part of why this sound has remained so distinctive for more than four decades.
They also understand something the modern music business almost seems afraid of.
Absence.
Sade can disappear for YEARS.
Then when they’re ready to return, we’re still sitting here like, “Okay…what y’all got?” 😂❤️
In 2018 we got the beautiful Flower of the Universe for Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time, followed by The Big Unknown for Widows.
Then came word that the band had returned to France’s legendary Miraval Studios, where they’d previously worked on Promise and Stronger Than Pride, to record new music.
And in 2024 Sade Adu gave us Young Lion, an incredibly personal song dedicated to her son Izaak. 🥹
Now we’re still waiting for that long hoped for successor to Soldier of Love.
I’m not worried about a release date until Sade does because this woman has taught us patience. 😂
And here’s the perfect full circle moment.
In 2026, Sade was announced as a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee.
Forty plus years after Diamond Life, the world is still recognizing what some of us have known since 1984.
Timeless doesn’t get old.
It just waits for everybody else to catch up. ❤️🎶
DJZ7
#TheSoundtrackOfWhoIBecame, #Sade, #SadeAdu, #TheUltimateCollection, #DiamondLife, #LoveDeluxe, #SmoothOperator, #NoOrdinaryLove, #QuietStorm, #RnB, #djzyonseven, #thesoundtrackofmylife, #SoldierOfLove, #SmoothOperator, #ByYourSide, #NoOrdinaryLove, #YourLoveIsKing, #SweetestTaboo, #KissOfLife, #Paradise, #CherishTheDay
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