Emeli Sandé
Emeli Sandé | |
|---|---|
 Sandé in 2014 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Adele Emily Sandé 10 March 1987[1] Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England |
| Origin | Alford, Aberdeenshire, Scotland |
| Genres | |
| Occupations |
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| Instruments |
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| Years active | 2008–present |
| Labels | |
Spouse |
Adam Gouraguine
(m. 2012; div. 2014) |
Adele Emily Sandé (/ˈsændeɪ/ SAN-day; previously Gouraguine; born 10 March 1987), known professionally as Emeli Sandé,[2][3] is a British singer and songwriter. Born in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England and raised in Alford, Aberdeenshire, Scotland,[4][5][6] Sandé rose to prominence after her guest appearance on Chipmunk's 2009 single "Diamond Rings", which peaked within the top ten of the UK singles chart. The following year, she guest appeared on Wiley's single "Never Be Your Woman", which also peaked within the chart's top ten. In 2012, she received the Brit Awards' Critics' Choice Award.
Sandé's first solo single, "Heaven", was released in August 2011. She peaked atop both the UK singles chart and Irish singles chart twice with her guest appearance on Professor Green's single "Read All About It" that same year, and her 2012 single "Beneath Your Beautiful" (with Labrinth). Her debut studio album, Our Version of Events (2012), spent ten non-consecutive weeks atop the UK albums chart, and, with one million domestic sales, became the best-selling UK album of 2012.[7][8] That same year, she performed in both the opening and closing ceremonies of the London Olympics.[9][10] She won Best British Female Solo Artist and British Album of the Year at the 2013 Brit Awards.[11]
Her second studio album, Long Live the Angels (2016), debuted at number two on the UK albums chart. In 2017, she won the Brit Award for Best British Female Solo Artist, becoming her fourth win in total. In 2018, she performed the singing voice of Thethuthinnang in the miniseries Watership Down.
Early life
Adele Emily Sandé was born in Sunderland,[12][13][14][15] to a Zambian father, Joel Sandé, and an English mother, Diane Sandé-Wood, on 10 March 1987.[1][16] 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.[17]
Sandé wrote her first song at the age of 11, for her primary-school talent show.[18] 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."[18] The first song she wrote was called "Tomorrow Starts Again" – the song had proper structure and even a middle eight.[18]
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."[19][