How old is Emeli Sandé, what are her biggest songs, is she married and when was she awarded her MBE?
The Brit Award-winning artist was born in Sunderland to a Zambian father and her English mother
EMELI Sandé is one of the UK’s best-loved female vocalists, with a number one and a number two album under her belt.
She’s racked up a number of awards over the years and also picked up a gong from the Royal Family.
What is Emeli Sandé’s background?
Emili’s real name is actually Adele Emily Sandé, but she decided to use her middle name for her music as Hello singer Adele was already established using that name and Emili wanted to differentiate herself.
Despite her broad Scottish accent, Emeli, 31, was actually born in Sunderland. Her family moved to Aberdeenshire when she was just four. Her dad Joel was a teacher at her school in Alford, instilling in her a thirst for knowledge.
Emeli has described herself as nerdy and is a big advocate of the importance of education.
She turned down her first record deal offer aged 16 to pursue a degree in medicine in Glasgow but eventually left uni with a neuroscience degree.
She was made an MBE this year in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for her services to music.
What music has Emeli released?
Emili’s 2012 major label debut Our Version of Events charted at number one in the UK thanks to singles Heaven, Daddy and Read All About it. The album sold nearly 2.5million record in the UK alone.
She followed it with Long Live The Angels, which despite charting at number two in the UK, only sold a tenth of what her debut did. The lead single from the record, Hurts, charted at number 22.
Her latest release came out earlier this month and sees her team up with rappers Wretch 32, Giggs and Dave East.
Who was Emili Sandé married to?
Emili’s relationship with marine biologist Adam Gouraguine was shrouded in secrecy, with her wanting to remain out of the limelight.
The pair got engaged in January 2012 and married nine months later in his home country of Montenegro.
However, the marriage didn’t last long with Emili revealing in November 2014 that the pair had divorced.
She then had a short-lived relationship with rapper Hypo but the pair split after a year.