Adele Emily Sandé, MBE (/ˈsændeɪ/ SAN-day; born 10 March 1987), known

professionally as Emeli Sandé,[1] is a British singer and songwriter. Born

in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear and raised in Alford, Aberdeenshire by an
English mother and Zambian father,[2][3][4] Sande rose to prominence after
being a featured artist on the 2009 Chipmunk track "Diamond Rings". It was
their first top 10 single on the UK Singles Chart. In 2010, she was featured on
"Never Be Your Woman" by the rapper Wiley, which was another top ten hit. In
2012, she received the Brit Awards' Critics' Choice Award.
Sandé released her first solo single "Heaven" in August 2011. She has two
number-one singles across the UK and Ireland with "Read All About It"
with Professor Green and "Beneath Your Beautiful", a collaboration
with Labrinth. Her album Our Version of Events spent ten non-consecutive
weeks at number one and became the best-selling album of 2012 in the UK,
with over 1 million sales.[5][6] In 2012, she performed in both the Opening and
Closing ceremonies of the London Olympics.[7][8] She won two Brit Awards at
the 2013 ceremony: Best British Female Solo Artist, and British Album of the
Year.[9]
In 2016, she released her second studio album Long Live the Angels, which
debuted at number 2 on the UK album chart. In 2017, she won the Brit Award
for Best British Female Solo Artist, becoming her fourth win in total.
Sandé was also appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in
the 2017 Birthday Honours for her services to music.

Contents

 1Early life
 2Career
 2.12008–2010: Pre-fame
 2.22011–2013: Our Version of Events and breakthrough
 2.32013–present: Long Live the Angels and community presence
 3Artistry
 3.1Musical style
 3.2Songwriting
 4Personal life
 5Discography
 6Touring
 7Awards and nominations
 8References
 9External links

Early life[edit]
Adele Emily Sandé was born in Sunderland,[10][11][12][13] to a Zambian father,
Joel Sandé, and an English mother, Diane Sandé-Wood, on 10 March 1987. Her
father, having moved from Zambia, met her mother while they were both at
the polytechnic in Sunderland. The family moved to Alford, Aberdeenshire,
Scotland, when she was four.[14]
Sandé wrote her first song at the age of 11, for her primary-school talent
show.[15] She remembers. "That was the first time I thought I might be a
songwriter. I always knew I wanted to be a musician and I knew I wanted to
write because the people I was listening to all wrote. I never thought it was an
option to sing anyone else's songs.[15] The first song she wrote was called
"Tomorrow Starts Again" – the song had proper structure and even a middle
eight.[15]
Sandé attended school at Alford Academy, where her father was a teacher.
She said, "I hated to be ill and to miss a day because I was so hungry to learn.
I was very shy, nerdy and extremely well-behaved. Inevitably, throughout
secondary school, it was part and parcel of my identity that I was Mr. Sandé's
daughter. No way could I muck about or get into trouble, because it would've
got back to him within minutes. And Dad was strict, let me tell
you."[16] Choice FM invited the 15-year-old Sandé to London to take part in
their "Rapology" competition. Richard Blackwood also had her down to MTV's
Camden studios to sing gospel.[15] It was the first London appearance of her
career.[17] By the time she reached the age of 16, she had a record deal
with Telstar within reach. However, understanding the opportunity that
university could also offer her, she turned down the deal. [18] She
studied medicine, in the five-year MBChB course[19] at the University of
Glasgow, but left after obtaining a degree in neuroscience.[20] She has stated
that education was important to her, because, if her music career failed, she
would have something to fall back on. Her manager Adrian Sykes, she said,
had waited patiently from when she was 16: "Adrian really respects that I
want to get an education behind me. He also knows my parents are keen that
I finish university".[21]
There have been many who have inspired Sandé throughout her life. One
important influence was Frida Kahlo, so important that she has a tattoo of the
artist's portrait on her forearm.[15] Just after leaving medical school, she made
the decision to get the tattoo, which, for her, represented strength and
bravery. Kahlo was inspirational for Sandé due to the unique story of her
battle with polio at a very young age that went on to inspire her artwork. She
knew that her decision to pursue music and quit school would require a sense
of fearlessness that she gained through Kahlo's expression of art.[22]

Career[edit]
2008–2010: Pre-fame[edit]
Sandé's sister made a video of her playing the piano and singing to one of her
favourite songs, "Nasty Little Lady".[15] They sent the clip to Trevor
Nelson's BBC Urban music competition. Sandé won the show and was offered
a record deal, but the management that she met via the competition decided
against the deal.[15] Emeli had become involved in the Urban Scot collective
who helped and encouraged her career by promoting her in Scotland, and –
according to Emeli Sandé: The Biography by David Nolan (2013)[23] – also
released an album of songs called Have You Heard? on Glasgow's Souljawn
Records, which was sold at gigs. Several tracks were also made available to
download.
Her parents also sent BBC Radio 1Xtra a CD of her songs. Ras Kwame played
her on his "Homegrown Sessions", and four artists that year were asked to do
a show in Soho. She met with Watford-born music producer/writer Shahid
Khan aka Naughty Boy,[24] who had previously worked with Ms
Dynamite and Bashy,[15] and they began writing tracks for artists such
as Alesha Dixon, Chipmunk, Professor Green, Devlin, Preeya Kalidas, Cheryl
Cole, and Tinie Tempah. Sandé soon signed a record deal with Virgin
Records and EMI Records.[25]
In an interview, she said "I was doing a show in London for 1Xtra and I met
this guy called Naughty Boy. We got in the studio and we clicked work wise.
We just started writing, not necessarily for me, we just thought 'let's write a
pop tune' and experiment. And we wrote the Chipmunk track and I thought
nothing of it. Naughty Boy sent it off to Chipmunk who really liked it and wrote
his stuff around it."[25] She signed a record deal with Virgin Records in 2010.
She later signed another deal with EMI Records in early 2011.[26] Sandé made
her singing career debut in 2009 after appearing on the track she wrote
for Chipmunk's first debut single, "Diamond Rings". The single charted at No.
6 on the UK Singles Charts, making it Chipmunk and Sandé's first ever Top 10
Hit.[27]
She later appeared on another single singing guest vocals, after collaborating
with Wiley on his comeback single "Never Be Your Woman", the single charted
at number-eight on the UK Singles Charts becoming Sandé's second
consecutive Top 10 Single.[24] Sandé decided against using the name Adele
Sandé, due to Adele's growing success, so used her middle name instead. She
revealed: "I changed it as soon as Adele came out. I just thought, 'You've kind
of taken the [name] now', so I went with my middle name. She was just
getting bigger and bigger, so I thought I just really need it. [28]
2011–2013: Our Version of Events and breakthrough[edit]

Sandé at the 2013 Gibraltar Music Festival

Sandé revealed her first solo single would be released in early 2011.[29] There
was some speculation surrounding which track she would release, after many
newspapers stated that it would be "Daddy". The first official single from her
upcoming debut album was "Heaven", released on 14 August 2011.[30]The
song received positive reviews from blogs such as This Must Be Pop [31] and
Robot Pigeon.[32] She confirmed that "Daddy" would be the second official
single released from Our Version of Events. Sandé achieved her first number-
one single on the UK Singles Chart after "Read All About It" entered at
number-one.
On 26 November, Sandé performed at the LG ARENA in Birmingham for BRMB
2011. On 15 December 2011, she was named as the Brit Awards Critics'
Choice for 2012.[2][33][34] Her album Our Version of Events reached number
one in the UK after its release in February 2012.[6] Sandé's debut album
includes songs written by her and has been reviewed as having "richly
melodic, classically powerful, retro-futurist soul-pop songs".[15][35]
It was announced that she was up for another BRIT Award in 2012, for British
Breakthrough Act.[36] Sandé went on to write material for the original line-up
of Sugababes. On 24 January 2012, Sandé performed a one-off gig for Q
Magazine at XOYO, London. She was supported by British soul singer Michael
Kiwanuka. She recorded a version of David Guetta's "Titanium" and the pair
performed the song at NRJ Music Awards in France.[37][38] Sandé has penned a
track for Naughty Boy's upcoming LP entitled "Hollywood" which features soul
singer Gabrielle. It is about fame coming and going and will be released in
November.[39]
On 27 July 2012, Sandé sang "Abide with Me" at the opening ceremony of
the 2012 Summer Olympics, and her song "Heaven" was used to accompany
the section with Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Both appear on the Isles of Wonder CD
of the opening ceremony's music. NBC also used her song "Wonder" during
the credits roll at the end of the tape-delayed ceremony broadcast in the
United States. On 12 August 2012, Sandé sang "Read All About It (Part III)" at
the closing ceremony, while a video montage of emotional scenes from the
games was shown. She also covered a version of John Lennon's "Imagine"
exclusively for the BBC, who used it for their end credits montage at the
conclusion of their Olympics coverage. Sandé is a winner of the 2013
European Border Breakers Awards. The European Border Breakers Awards
honour the best new music acts in Europe. The award ceremony takes place
at the Eurosonic Noorderslag music festival in Groningen (NL). She won two
BRIT 2013 awards for Best British female and Best British Album. In January
2013 it was revealed that Ella Henderson has anticipated work with Sandé on
her debut album.[40] The song "Next to Me" won two Ivor Novello Awards for
"Best Song Musically and Lyrically" and "PRS for Music Most Performed Work"
in 2013.[41]
2013–present: Long Live the Angels and community
presence[edit]
In May 2013, she performed at the White House in Washington, D.C., as one of
the featured artists at the award ceremony when President Obama
presented Carole King with the Library of Congress Gershwin Medal.[42] In June
2013, Sandé started writing her second upcoming studio album, which was
released in 2016. She had already written several songs, including "Pluto"
with Naughty Boy, "Enough", "Call Me What You Like", "You and Me" and "This
Much Is True", which was written for her former husband, Adam. During U.S.
Summer Tour in July 2013, Sandé performed "Free" from Rudimental's
album Home, "Lifted" from Naughty Boy's album Hotel Cabana.
With her speedy success worldwide and especially between the UK and the
US, Sandé has been a presence in many important campaigns, aside from her
powerful stance on social justice through her songwriting. Whether through
performances at fundraising concerts or campaigns of her own, she backs up
her lyrics of social change and equality with action. With the honour of
performing at Elton John's AIDS Foundation Event in 2013, she has shown her
support in raising money and awareness for the HIV/AIDS problem in the
world. More specifically, she understands the seriousness of HIV/AIDS in her
father's home origin of Zambia which provides a deeper passion to support
the cause.[43] She is also one face of Fashion Targets Breast Cancerin the
effort to also create awareness and funding for the fight against breast cancer.
[44] More recently, Sandé has helped launch a programme of her own called
"Community Clavinova", a nationwide opportunity for organizations of many
kinds to receive free Clavinovas through the partnership of Sandé
and Yamaha UK. As a passionate musician, she understands the importance of
having resources and is excited to help provide groups with the opportunity to
receive such a great contribution their organizations.[45]
In 2013, Sandé revealed that she has been working on her second studio
album, slated to be released in 2016. On 15 November 2014, Sandé joined the
charity group Band Aid 30 along with other British and Irish pop acts,
recording the latest version of the track "Do They Know It's Christmas?"
at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, to raise money for the 2014
Ebola crisis in Western Africa.[46]
On 25 August 2016, Sandé shared a preview of a song from her upcoming
album entitled 'Intermission' on her social media accounts, with the caption
"Inhale, exhale, release and let yourself receive forgiveness." Following a
number of teasers, it was announced that "Hurts" would be released on 16
September as the lead single. Describing the song, she said: "I wanted to
release 'Hurts' first because it felt like everything I've avoided saying for so
long. It's a real explosion. It's everything I wish I'd said years and years ago. I
didn't want to hold anything back anymore."[47]On 15 September, Sandé
announced on her social media accounts that her new album would be called
'Long Live The Angels' and that it would be released on 11 November 2016.
Her song Hurts from the album Long Live the Angels was published on 5
October. The album was released on the proposed date. The album debuted at
number 2 on the UK album chart. The following year, Sandé gave her Long
Live the Angels Tour, which is her first to include Arena dates.
In 2017, she received the Brit Awards' Best British Female Solo Artist award,
becoming her fourth win in total. On 2 October 2017, Sandé was also awarded
with a BASCA Gold Badge award[48]in recognition of her unique contribution to
music.

Artistry[edit]
Musical style[edit]

Sandé performing in Germany 2013

Sandé possesses a soprano vocal range.[49][50][51] Sandé has said she wants
her music to be remembered like that of Nina Simone, one of her favourite
artists. Sandé was first exposed to Simone at the age of eight, hearing her
perform the song "Why?" after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. After
hearing such sorrow yet uplifting lyrics and expression through Simone's
performance, Sandé was inspired to have a similar future with her music
career.[52] She also said: "These days nothing lasts, music is like fast food,
you're in then you're out.[53] She said, as much as she would like, she would
never play the piano as well as Simone, but she would give it her best shot.
She loves the songs Simone produced, including "I Wish I Knew How It Would
Feel to Be Free" and Simone's version of "I Think It's Going to Rain Today". She
said that Simone's original songs are very poetic: "So when I listen to
commercial stuff at the moment, I’m just thinking ‘haven’t you heard Nina
Simone, haven’t you heard how a song should be written?"[54] She went on to
say "We choose and consume, feast and forget, then rush on to the next hot
thing. There's no point chasing that kind of success because it's so transient.
Far better to follow (our) own paths and be true to (ourselves)."[53]
Sandé began working in the studio with Naughty Boy in 2009, where the pair
first worked together on Chipmunk's debut album, I Am Chipmunk.[53] When
Sandé was 16 years of age, her parents took her to Alicia Keys Songs in A
Minor Tour and she said she always wanted Keys to hear her music. [53] She
spoke on why she likes Keys so much: "I’d read about her background and
identified with her on so many levels. She was mixed race like me, a great
student who'd been top of her class, who played piano and loved Nina
Simone. And there she was in the pop charts, yet with songs that had a
message. I saw 16,000 people hanging on her every word and thought, "I
want this kind of attention. I want Alicia to know my music."[53] The pair met
when Sandé had just came back from New York and just began a second
songwriting stint, but this time involved with Keys. The pair sat at a piano and
played for hours trying to come up with a good track. [53] She said that she
wanted the songs on her debut album to be fresh and she wanted to try and
take it back how she wrote songs at the beginning of her career. Sandé had
classical music training as a songwriter in her teens and learnt to play the
piano at an early age, and getting across that she played, made and wrote her
own music was very important to her. She said on the album, she wanted
people to see every side of her as an artist, so it was important to have songs
there where there could be a real connection with the lyric, rather than there
just be throwaway pop music.[55] Joni Mitchell and Lauryn Hillwere also major
influences for the album.[15]
Songwriting[edit]
"I have just finished a song with Cher Lloyd, called Lifetime, for her new album. I have
another on Leona Lewis's next album and one that has been recorded by Susan Boyle.
That's probably my proudest moment. Susan recorded my song, called This Will Be The
Year, last week, for her next album. There is another called River, which I am hoping
she's going to record.

—Emeli Sandé[56]

While making her debut album, Sandé began to work with Tinie Tempah. She
co-wrote "Let Go", on which she provided guest vocals. She also started
working with Devlin after recording a song titled "Dreamer". Sandé later
revealed she would be working on Alesha Dixon's upcoming album, The
Entertainer. She co-wrote the hit single "Radio" along with Shahid Khan.
[57] and co-wrote tracks on Cheryl Cole's albums as well as Professor Green's
album, which Sandé gave guest vocals on.[58] She said that she is Simon
Cowell's favourite songwriter at the moment[when?]; due to her writing songs
for Leona Lewis and Susan Boyle.[56] Sandé stated in an interview; she said
that she would love to meet Boyle after writing songs for her saying, "I
haven't met her yet. I just sent her the song. I'd love to meet her because I
think she is a bit of a rock star." Sandé cowrote "This Will Be The Year" for
Boyle and songs for Leona called "Trouble" and "Mountains".[56] It was
revealed after Professor Green announced his album tracking list for his
album, At Your Inconvenience, that Sandé would feature on the first single
from the album, "Read All About It". The single was released in October 2011
before the album was released.[59] The pair also performed the song live
on The X Factor results show.[60] She draws on influences for her music
from Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell, Lauryn Hill and Amy Winehouse.[15] Sandé
said that all her songs were about World peace and political issues.[15] Sandé
said that the key to a good song when songwriting is using "honesty" and
"raw emotion" as the best way to write. She said that if she attempts to write
something which is "too smart", the creative process will not work for her. "Kill
the Boy" was one of the first ideas that came to Sandé's head. She said if she
has to work on a song longer than a day, she will not go back to it, as she said
it won't work. She went on to say if it was to work, that the idea for the song
would be almost instant.[15]

Personal life[edit]
In January 2012, Sandé confirmed that she was engaged [61] to her then
unidentified, long-term boyfriend of seven years.[62] Her boyfriend had
requested not to be identified and Sandé said that he is not in the music
industry but is a scientist.[63]
Sandé's fiancé was revealed as marine biologist Adam Gouraguine when the
pair married in his home nation of Montenegro on 15 September 2012. Sandé
said she would legally take his name, but would still be known professionally
as Emeli Sandé.[64] In November 2014, Sandé revealed that the couple had
divorced after a year of marriage.[65][66]
Sandé was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in
the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to music.[67]