Adele Emeli Sandé  /sÃ¦nËˆdiË/ san-dee (born 10 March 1987), best known as Emeli Sandé, is a Scottish recording artist and songwriter. Sandé first became known to the public eye after she featured on the track "Diamond Rings" by the rapper Chipmunk. It was their first top 10 single on the UK Singles Chart. In 2010, she featured on "Never Be Your Woman" by the rapper Wiley, which became another top ten hit. Simon Cowell called Sandé "his favourite songwriter at the minute". She has written for a number of artists, including Cher Lloyd, Parade, Susan Boyle, Preeya Kalidas, Leona Lewis, Alesha Dixon, Cheryl Cole, Tinie Tempah, and Mutya Keisha Siobhan.
In 2010, she signed a publishing deal with EMI Music Publishing. She later announced that Virgin Records had given her a record deal. Sandé released her first solo single "Heaven" in August 2011. Sandé has two number-one singles across the United Kingdom and Ireland with "Read All About It" with Professor Green and "Next to Me". Her album Our Version of Events peaked at number one in the UK, soon after its release in February 2012 . In 2012 she performed in both the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the London Olympics.
Emeli Sandé was born to a Zambian father and English mother. She was raised in Alford, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. She studied Medicine at the University of Glasgow, but stopped in her fourth year. She said that education was one of the most important things to her, stating that if her music career failed, she has education to fall back on. Sandé said that her manager, Adrian Sykes, waited patiently since 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." Sandé has a tattoo of artist Frida Kahlo. At the age of 11, when Sandé was still in primary school, she wrote her first song for a 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. At the age of 15, Choice FM invited her to London, United Kingdom to take part in a competition they were holding, the "Rapology". Richard Blackwood also had her down to MTV's Camden studios to sing gospel. Sandé went to the same secondary school at which 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."