Led by vocalist Sade Adu, “Soldier of Love" taps the same adult market Sony Music reached so well at the end of 2009 with Susan Boyle. In the week of “Soldier of Love's" release, the act had a wide-ranging array of promotional television appearances, centering on morning and midafternoon programs such as “The View," “Today" and, on Tuesday, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show."
The album's title track and leadoff single sees Sade bringing in more contemporary R&B sounds, yet the cut still contains the hallmarks that helped the act define romantic soul throughout the '80s, and here's betting Sade's album was the soundtrack to more than a few Valentine's Day dates this past weekend.
Heading into this week, the single was No. 1 on Billboard's Smooth Jazz Songs tally, but is also reaching a more pop-leaning audience. The cut is at No. 10 on the trade's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart (Billboard updates its singles charts on Thursday).
“Soldier of Love" is Sade's first album of new material since “Lover's Rock" was released during the holiday season of 2000. That album debuted at No. 3, and sold 370,000 copies in its first week, according to the Billboard archives. “Soldier of Love," reports Billboard, is Sade's best sales tally on the charts, although some of the act's biggest were released before SoundScan began tracking data in 1991.
In addition to Sade, about half the top 10 on this week's pop chart is aimed at an older audience, be it in the country or pop genres. Sade pushes Lady Antebellum's “Need You Now" to No. 2, the Capital Nashville set adding 208,000 to its tally of 897,000, and Boyle's “I Dreamed a Dream" is hanging on at No. 10 (3.5 million to date).
