Sade Adu

"I am fairly classless because it is very difficult to class someone who comes from a mixed marriage. There isn’t a class structure in Nigeria, there’s a tribal structure and prestige as far as money is concerned. My mother comes from a family where her mother was very working-class and her father was middle-class stroke artsy-fartsy."

"One bloke approached an entire interview as if I was trying to be a jazz musician. I’ve never said that. I’ve never even tried it. And if we did we’d do a darn sight better job than we are doing now."

"Most things around are very similar in every respect, the music and the way people look. In order to be in a band, you have to have certain colors in your hair—still! Our image is striking because it is different, not because it is particularly outstanding."

"I don’t like segregation…Music is something which should be available to all people. When you go into a club there is no color bar on the dance floor, so why should it apply to radio station? Unfortunately it does. It does not only apply to black and white, it also applies to heavy metal, pop, all that. It’s such a big place with such big corporations everywhere that in order to feel safe they have to categorize things."

"You sort of feel like you’re a gladiator going out there because even though you know most of these people have come from a good place and they love your music and they come with a feeling of love, which is what you walk away with…It’s a bit like being thrown at the lions when you go out there because you have this sort of fear, even though it’s irrational, (that) you’re going to get torn apart, so you go out and you have to be good."