Emeli Sandé

Adele Emily Sandé, (previously Gouraguine; born 10 March 1987), known professionally as Emeli Sandé, is a Scottish singer and songwriter.

Adele Emily Sandé was born in Sunderland, to a Zambian father, Joel Sandé, and an English mother, Diane Sandé-Wood, on 10 March 1987.

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.

Sandé wrote her first song at the age of 11, for her primary-school talent show.

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."

The first song she wrote was called "Tomorrow Starts Again" – the song had proper structure and even a middle eight.

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."

Choice FM invited the 15-year-old Sandé to London to take part in their "Rapology" competition.

Richard Blackwood also had her down to MTV's Camden studios to sing gospel.

It was the first London appearance of her career.

By the time she reached the age of 16, she had a record deal with Telstar within reach.

However, understanding the opportunity that the university could also offer her, she turned down the deal.

Sandé studied medicine, in the five-year MBChB course at the University of Glasgow, but left after obtaining a degree in clinical medicine, specialising in neuroscience.

She has stated that education was important to her, because, if her music career failed, she would have something to fall back on.

Her manager Adrian Sykes, she said, had waited patiently from when 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".

There have been many who have inspired Sandé throughout her life.

One important influence was Frida Kahlo, so important that she has a tattoo of the artist's portrait on her forearm.

Just after leaving medical school, she made the decision to get the tattoo, which, for her, represented strength and bravery.

Kahlo was inspirational for Sandé due to the unique story of her battle with polio at a very young age which went on to inspire her artwork.

She knew that her decision to pursue music and quit school would require a sense of fearlessness that she gained through Kahlo's expression of art.

Sandé's sister made a video of her playing the piano and singing to one of her favourite songs, "Nasty Little Lady".

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.

Born in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, and raised in Alford, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, by an English mother and a Zambian father, Sandé rose to prominence after being a featured artist on the 2009 track "Diamond Rings" by rapper Chipmunk.

It was the first top 10 single on the UK Singles Chart for both of them.

In 2010, she was featured on "Never Be Your Woman" by the rapper Wiley, which was another top ten hit.

Sandé released her first solo single "Heaven" in August 2011.

She has two number-one singles across the UK and Ireland with "Read All About It" with Professor Green and "Beneath Your Beautiful", a collaboration with Labrinth.

In 2012, she received the Brit Awards' Critics' Choice Award.

Her album Our Version of Events spent ten non-consecutive weeks at number one and became the best-selling album of 2012 in the UK, with over 1 million sales.

In 2012, she performed in both the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the London Olympics. In 2013, at the Brit Awards 2013 ceremony, she won two awards: Best British Female Solo Artist, and British Album of the Year.

Emeli had become involved in the Urban Scot collective who helped and encouraged her career by promoting her in Scotland, and – according to Emeli Sandé: The Biography by David Nolan (2013) – also released an album of songs called Have You Heard? on Glasgow's Souljawn Records, which was sold at gigs.

Several tracks were also made available to download.

Her parents also sent BBC Radio 1Xtra a CD of her songs.

Ras Kwame played her on his "Homegrown Sessions", and four artists that year were asked to do a show in Soho.

In 2016, she released her second studio album Long Live the Angels, which debuted at number 2 on the UK album chart.

In 2017, she won the Brit Award for Best British Female Solo Artist, becoming her fourth win in total.

In 2018, she featured as the singing voice of Thethuthinnang on Watership Down.