By now, it should be quite obvious that my Daddy appreciated a womanโs touch in his endless playlist. Anita Baker, Toni Braxton, Tina Turner, and Paula Abdul are just a few who made the rounds, but no one could hold a candle to the empress Sade Adu.
Her first album, Diamond Life, was released when I was three, so I donโt remember a time when โSmooth Operator,โ โHang On To Your Love,โ and โYour Love is Kingโ werenโt among the many and most revered slow jams played in our house. And car. And Walkmans. When my Daddy liked something, he was all in, so we could listen to any of Sadeโs releases on vinyl, cassette or CD, and we did.
Which meant I knew her songs and her voice intimately long before I ever laid eyes on this siren with the incredible range who seemed to follow us wherever weโd go. Somehow, โCherish the Dayโ was the first of her videos that I saw, and it quickly became my favorite because I was completely enamored with the fact that this light-skinned Black woman seductively wielding a guitar was THE Sade.
But โCherish the Dayโ was shot in black and white. When I saw โNo Ordinary Loveโ 3 years on the heels of Disneyโs โThe Little Mermaid,โ and in full gorgeous 90s color, I was officially head over heels.
There were no Black Disney princesses then, but voraciously curious collector Ariel, isolated from a world she so desperately wanted inclusion in by her physical difference, was the first to make me feel the least bit understood. And in โNo Ordinary Love,โ Sade gave me the gift of seeing a physical representation of myself where Iโd already found a kindred spirit. And though he did NOT love Ariel, the 80s Elsa, my Daddy did love him some Sade.
No matter how many times your parents say youโre beautiful, it feels like lip service. Theyโre supposed to say that, right? But music was my Daddyโs everything. And among the talented women he loved, Minnie Riperton and Sade were the two he loved most of allโthe only two who looked like me. Among those three I found comfort, the most beautiful music, and one place I didnโt have to wish I could be part of their world.