Seal

Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel, professionally known as Seal, was born into a family of Brazilian-Nigerian origin on February 19, 1963 in Paddington, London, UK. Seal was brought up in England. Architecture became his original profession, but the young man tried a variety of jobs - from clothes design to electric engineering - till he came to singing. In the middle of 80s he toured around Japan with the British funk command Push, in Asia he played in some blues band from Thailand, traveling after that across India without any company. When the artist came back to his Motherland, he met a famous producer Adamski, for whom he contributed lyrics and vocals for the club-house single Killer. Soon after Killer became a dance hit Seal got his solo contract and in 1991 he released the self-titled debut album. The disc was produced by Trevor Horn, who became Seal's long-time collaborator. This release became multi-platinum and made the artist famous in both Europe and the USA.

It took Seal three years to finish his second edition, also eponymous. The first single Prayer For The Dying was a descent success, but it was the second single Kiss From A Rose that entered the Batman Forever soundtrack and became a real bomb hit, bringing three Grammies to the author. In 1998, Seal dedicated his new album, Human Being, to the killed rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls. This disc featured dark and depressing moods as it also reflected the uneasy period in Seal's own life - a serious quarrel and reconciliation with his producer, Trevor Horn, and transition to the Warner Bros. studio from ZTT Records. In 2001, fans were looking forward for a new work by Seal titled Togetherland. Due to some unknown reasons the album never saw light. The most extensive version is that the artist cancelled the release himself, considering the Togetherland to be "not worthy". At the same time the musician came back to the dancing scene with My Visions composition and a duet with French diva Mylene Farmer called Les Mots.

In 2003, Seal finished his fans' long awaiting with the third album called Seal, though in Australia this edition was issued as Seal IV. Seal IV generated such big hits, as Waiting For You, Get It Together and Love's Divine that brought him back his popularity in Europe and the USA. 2004 was noticeable with the Best 1991-2004 compilation. In 2005, the singer released a concert record from his shows in Paris, titled simply as Live In Paris. The same year he married German top-model Heidi Klum, becoming the adoptive father of her daughter from the previous relations. Later Seal became a happy father of two sons from Heidi - in 2005 and in 2006 respectively. In June 2006, the artist played an exclusive concert in a historical mill of Altes Kesselhaus in Dusseldorf, Germany. The unique record became known as One Night To Remember. In the spring of 2007, Seal announced that his new creation System would be ready in November of the same year. The author himself described System as the returning to his dance roots of the first album. The disc features the track Wedding Day, on which Seal sings together with his wife Heidi Klum and their voices are sparkling with happiness. In autumn of 2008 the singer presented another album Soul, named to denote a music that goes from his heart. This release included cover versions of classic soul hits. In 2009 Seal released the compilation album Hits, which includes singer’s best songs. The musician’s seventh record entitled Commitment saw the light in 2010. The album was traditionally created in the highest level, which was proved by fans’ enthusiastic reviews and critics’ acclamation. Thus, Seal managed to release another extremely strong long play and to prove that he had not only plenty of new ideas, but also the strength to realize them.