It seems the world just couldn’t wait for another Sade album. Her latest, Soldier of Love, has been proclaimed No. 1 around the world with over a half-million albums sold since its release. Take that Lady Gaga.
The 51-year-old British singer’s album is the second to hit No. 1. Her first was 1986’s Promise. The album also marks Sade’s return to the charts since 2000’s multi-platinum Lovers Rock which debuted with 370,000 records sold.
“It’s unimpeachably excellent,” Rolling Stone wrote, summing up the critical acclaim.
The single, “Soldier of Love,” has become a major radio staple, landing into the top five at both Urban Hot AC and Smooth Jazz radio charts, making it one of the fastest moving records of the year.
The track has held the #1 spot at Urban Hot AC radio for four weeks straight and topped the Smooth Jazz chart for two weeks. Sade is now the first group since the Isley Brothers in 2001 to earn a #1 spot as a lead act on the R&B Chart.
Sade is making the rounds on television, appearing on BET’s 106 & Park, The Today Show, Letterman, and The View. Performances on both Jimmy Kimmel and Ellen Degeneres air this week.
“People forget she is the biggest British female singer in history and she has managed that almost under the radar,” said long-time friend Robert Elms, a BBC radio personality said in a recent interview.
“She never wanted to be famous, just to write and sing good songs. She has exquisite taste and finds celebrity very vulgar,” he added.