There has never really been anyone on the music scene, at least not since the 1950s popularization of rock and roll, quite like Helen Fu1ecdláu1e63adé Adu.
Born to a Nigerian father and Scottish mother and known professionally as Sade Abu, she grew up in the UK and worked as a model before starting her musical career.
She has really not recorded all that much but her work is pretty unique. Her early work had a combination of African influences and jazz inflections that set her well apart from her contemporaries like Madonna, Whitney Houston and Cindy Lauper, all of whom were flashier or, at least sought harder to draw attention vocally and visually.