Emeli Sandé
Emeli Sandé | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Adele Emeli Sandé |
Born | [1][2][3][4] | 10 March 1987
Origin | Alford, Aberdeenshire, Scotland[2] |
Genres | Soul, R&B |
Occupation(s) | Singer, musician, songwriter |
Instruments | vocals, piano |
Years active | 2009–present |
Labels | Virgin (2010–present) Capitol Records (2012-present) |
Website | www |
Adele Emeli Sandé /[invalid input: 'icon']sænˈdiː/ san-dee, (born 10 March 1987)[1] best known as Emeli Sandé, is a Scottish[2][5][6] recording artist and songwriter. Sandé first became known to the public eye after she featured on the track "Diamond Rings" by the rapper Chipmunk. It was their first top 10 single on the UK Singles Chart. In 2010, she featured on "Never Be Your Woman" by the rapper Wiley, which became another top ten hit. Simon Cowell called Sandé "his favourite songwriter at the minute". She has written for a number of artists, including Cher Lloyd, Parade, Susan Boyle, Preeya Kalidas, Leona Lewis, Alesha Dixon, Cheryl Cole, Tinie Tempah, and Mutya Keisha Siobhan.
In 2010, she signed a publishing deal with EMI Music Publishing. She later announced that Virgin Records had given her a record deal. Sandé released her first solo single "Heaven" in August 2011. Sandé has two number-one singles across the United Kingdom and Ireland with "Read All About It" with Professor Green and "Next to Me". Her album Our Version of Events peaked at number one in the UK, soon after its release in February 2012 .[7]
Early life
Emeli Sandé was born to a Zambian father and English mother. She was raised in Alford, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.[2][3] She studied Medicine at the University of Glasgow, but stopped in her fourth year.[2] She said that education was one of the most important things to her, stating that if her music career failed, she has education to fall back on. Sandé said that her manager, Adrian Sykes, waited patiently since 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."[8] Sandé has a tattoo of artist Frida Kahlo.[9] At the age of 11, when Sandé was still in primary school, she wrote her first song for a school talent show.[9] 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.[9] The first song she wrote was called "Tomorrow Starts Again" - the song had proper structure and even a Middle eight.[9] At the age of 15, Choice FM invited her to London, United Kingdom to take part in a competition they were holding, the "Rapology". Richard Blackwood also had her down to MTV's Camden studios to sing gospel.[9] Sandé went to the same secondary school at which 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."[10]
Career
2008–10: Career beginnings
Sandé's sister made a video of her playing the piano and singing to one of her favourite songs, "Nasty Little Lady".[9] 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.[9] Her parents sent 1Xtra a CD of her songs. Ras Kwame played 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,[11] who has previously worked with Ms Dynamite and Bashy,[9] 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.[12] 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."[12] She signed a record deal with Virgin Records in 2010. She later signed another deal with EMI Records in early 2011.[13] 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.[14] 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.[11] Sandé announced she changed her name from Adele Sandé to her middle name Emeli Sandé due to Adele's growing success. She spoke; "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."[15]
2011–present: Our Version of Events, international success and songwriting
"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[15]
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.[16] and co-wrote tracks on Cheryl Cole's albums as well as Professor Green's album, which Sandé gave guest vocals on.[17] Sandé revealed her first solo single would be released in early 2011.[18] There was some speculation surrounding what track she would release, after many newspapers stated that it would be "Daddy". The first official single from her upcoming debut album was "Heaven" and was released on 14 August 2011.[19] The song has received positive reviews from blogs such as This Must Be Pop[20] and Robot Pigeon.[21]
She revealed that she is Simon Cowell's favourite song-writer at the moment; due to her writing songs for Leona Lewis and Susan Boyle.[15] 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." One song that Sandé had cowritten for Boyle will appear on her new album, titled "This Will Be The Year". Leona had heard a couple of songs so we had a week in the studio with her. Leona and I got along really well. Then we had another week together. It was very natural. She recorded a song called Trouble and another called Mountains, so I look forward to hearing them on her album."[15] 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.[22] The pair also performed the song live on The X Factor results show.[23] 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" 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][24][25] Sandé`s debut album includes songs written by her and has been reviewed as having "richly melodic, classically powerful, retro-futurist soul-pop songs."[9][26] She draws on influences for her music from Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell and Lauryn Hill.[9] Sandé said that all her songs were about World peace and political issues.[9] 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 onto say if it was to work, it the idea for the song would be almost instant.[9] It was announced that she was up for another BRIT Award in 2012, for British Breakthrough Act.[27] Sandé is currently writing material for the original lineup of Sugababes. On 24 January 2012, Sandé performed a one off gig for Q Magzine 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.[28][29] 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.[30] On 27 July 2012, Sandé sang "Abide With Me" at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics. NBC also used her song "Wonder" during the credits roll at the end of the tape-delayed ceremony broadcast in the United States.
Personal life
In January 2012, Sandé confirmed that she is engaged[31] to her unidentified, long-term boyfriend.[32] Her boyfriend has requested not to be identified and Sandé has said he is not in the music industry but that he is a scientist.[33]
Discography
Albums
- Our Version of Events (2012)
Touring
- Headlining
- Our Version of Events Tour (2011-2012)
- Supporting
- Mylo Xyloto Tour (2011-2012)
Filmography
Television
Television show | Year | Character | Description |
---|---|---|---|
The X Factor (UK) | 2011 | Performing | "Results Show 3" (season 8: episode 17) |
The Xtra Factor | "Results Show 3" (season 8: episode 17) | ||
The Graham Norton Show | 2012 | Herself, Performing | "Season 10, Episode 12" |
The Voice UK | Performing | "Results Show 2" (season 1: episode 10) |
Awards and nominations
Year | Award | Nomination | Work | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
2011 | MOBO Awards | Best Newcomer | Herself | Nominated |
2011 | Virgin Media Music Awards | Best Newcomer | Herself | Nominated |
2011 | Virgin Media Music Awards | Best Collaboration | "Read All About It" (with Professor Green) |
Nominated |
2012 | Brit Awards | Critic's Choice | Herself | Won |
2012 | Brit Awards | British Breakthrough Act | Herself | Nominated |
2012 | O2 Silver Clef Awards | American Express Innovation Award | Herself | Won |
2012 | BET Awards | Best International Act UK | Herself | Nominated |
References
- ^ a b "Twitter status". twitter.com. Twitter. 10 March 2012. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f "BBC News – Emeli Sande wins Brits Critics Choice award". Bbc.co.uk. 15 December 2011. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
- ^ a b "Emeli reveals why she changes name". Digital Spy. 19 August 2011. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
- ^ CJ Rutter (14 April 2011). Emeli Sande Talks Tinie Tempah, Wretch 32, Cheryl Cole And Her Debut Album. Accessed 2011-08-08.
- ^ Scots singer Emeli Sande wins critics' choice. bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-08-08.
- ^ Olympic torch: Highland relay clashes with major events. bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-08-08.
- ^ "Our Version of Events Emeli Sandé | Format: Audio CD". Amazon. Amazon Retail. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
- ^ Deadline News talks about Sandé's time at University. Deadlinenews.co.uk (28 August 2009). Retrieved 2012-05-11.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Emeli Sande information, BRIT Awards 2012. Brits.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-05-11.
- ^ "Emeli Sandé: Meet music's new darling, who is living her 'dream come true'". Mail Online. 3 February 2012. Retrieved 3 March 2012.
- ^ a b Mulderrig, Amie (9 March 2010). "Watford music producer Shahid Khan has notched up another chart hit". The Watford Observer. Retrieved 24 April 2012.
- ^ a b R&B singer Emeli Sande signs new publishing deal. Deadline News (28 August 2009). Retrieved 2012-05-05.
- ^ Emeli Sande signed a record deal with EMI records. Mtv.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-08-12.
- ^ Chipmunk – Diamond Rings ft Emeli Sande. Chart Stats. Retrieved 2011-08-12.
- ^ a b c d "Emeli reveals why she changes name". Digital Spy. 19 August 2011. Retrieved 19 August 2011. Cite error: The named reference "dailyrecord" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ The Glasgow student who swapped medicine to write for Cheryl Cole – Herald Scotland | Arts & Ents | Music Features. Herald Scotland (8 November 2010). Retrieved 2011-08-12.
- ^ Sande gives guest vocals and writes tracks for Cheryl Cole and Professor Green. Heraldscotland.com (8 November 2010). Retrieved 2011-08-12.
- ^ Emeli Sande's debut single set to be released in 2011[dead link ]
- ^ Emeli Sandé – Heaven. YouTube (9 June 2011). Retrieved 2011-08-12.
- ^ New Pop on the Block. This Must Be Pop (18 June 2011). Retrieved 2011-08-12.
- ^ Emeli Sande's new single is reviewed This Must Be Pop
- ^ "Emeli features on Professor Green's upcoming single". The Music Fix. 3 August 2011. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
- ^ "Emeli and Professor Green perform on The X Factor". SoulCounter. 24 October 2011. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
- ^ Kate Goodacre (15 December 2011). "Emeli Sandé named Brit Awards Critics' Choice for 2012 – Music News". Digital Spy. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
- ^ "Emeli Sande Wins The Brits Critics Choice Award | Emeli Sande | News | MTV UK". Mtv.co.uk. 15 December 2011. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
- ^ "Musicfootnotes". Musicfootnotes. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
- ^ "Ed Sheeran leads Brit Award nominations". RTE News. 12 January 2012. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
- ^ Emeli Sande replaces Sia on Titanium at the NRJ Music Awards. Trashlounge.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-05-11.
- ^ Emeli Sande records her version of Titanium and performs with David Guetta at France's version of the BRITS. Trashlounge.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-05-11.
- ^ Gabrielle to feature on Naughty Boy song “Hollywood”. Gabrielle.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-05-11."
- ^ "Interview: Emeli Sande — The UK phenomenon taking the R&B world by storm.. - TheNext2Shine.com - New R&B Music Video, R&B Soul News Interview, Emerging Undiscovered Unsigned Talent". Blog.thenext2shine.com. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
- ^ Alison Rennie (12 January 2012). "Emeli Sande reveals she's engaged". Evening Express (Scotland).
- ^ "Emeli Sande Confirms Engagement!". punchbowlblog.com. 12 January 2012.
External links
- Ill-formatted IPAc-en transclusions
- Use dmy dates from July 2012
- 1988 births
- Living people
- People from Marr
- Black Scottish people
- Brit Award winners
- British people of Zambian descent
- Breakbeat musicians
- Alumni of the University of Glasgow
- Rhythm and blues singer-songwriters
- Scottish female singers
- Scottish singer-songwriters
- Scottish soul singers
- Scottish people of English descent