Think Sade, and a few things likely pop to mind. There’s the signature beauty look: the dark eyeliner, shapely brows, red lip, and long, slicked-back plait. There are the clothes: good earrings—often big gold hoops—and stage outfits that were sexy, yes, but also slyly demure; high-waisted trousers, semi-sheer turtlenecks, cropped jackets, qipao-style dresses. You may nerdily make the distinction between Sade the woman—Helen Folasade Adu, OBE, born on January 16, 1959, in Ibadan, Nigeria—and Sade the Grammy-winning band, formed in 1982 and made up of Adu, Paul Denman, Andrew Hale, and Stuart Matthewman.
Now there’s one more thing to add to that list: the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. This weekend, the band will celebrate their induction—along with acts including Phil Collins, Billy Idol, Oasis, and the late Luther Vandross—in a ceremony at Los Angeles’s Peacock Theater. Now, will any of Sade’s members actually be present for that ceremony? No, according to a statement released on November 10. Even so, they called the recognition “both a gift and a timely reminder to give thanks, not only to those who voted for us but also every single person who lets our music into their lives.”
And what music that is: from “Smooth Operator” to “Kiss of Life,” “Is It a Crime” to “No Ordinary Love,” “The Sweetest Taboo” to “I Couldn’t Love You More,” Sade’s soulful, sui generis sound remains a benchmark for timeless cool.
Here, in celebration of her group’s latest honor, we’ve rounded up 13 striking old photographs of the divine Sade Adu, a generational talent and forever style icon.
