Through BLACK ENTERPRISE editors
February 8, 2026
Sade’s “The Best of Sade,” released more than thirty years ago, entered the top 10 of Billboard’s Top R&B Albums for the first time.
By Robert Heuvel
Sade Adu, the lead singer of the groundbreaking London group Sade, has achieved a new milestone as ‘The Best of Sade’, a compilation released more than thirty years ago, which entered the top 10 of the Billboard Top R&B Albums for the first time.
The album climbed from No. 12 to No. 10 on the chart, marking the group’s first-ever top 10 placement on Billboard’s R&B album rankings. Originally released in 1994, “The Best of Sade” continues to gain popularity through streaming and catalog consumption, underscoring the band’s enduring appeal across generations. The compilation debuted on the chart in August 2024 and reached the highest level after 62 weeks.
In addition to its top 10 breakthroughs on the R&B chart, “The Best of Sade” also made gains on several other Billboard rankings. The album climbed from No. 33 to No. 30 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and rose from No. 103 to No. 90 on the Billboard 200. While the project has reached higher positions on those lists in the past, its continued upward movement highlights its continued popularity decades after its release.
The compilation also has a strong presence in the jazz-oriented charts. “The Best of Sade” currently tops both the Billboard Jazz Albums and Billboard Contemporary Jazz Albums charts, where it has held the No. 1 spot for an extended period of time, reflecting the group’s crossover appeal across multiple genres.
Forbes reported, “Currently, Sade only manages to appear in more than one space on one Billboard roster, the Contemporary Jazz Albums chart. While ‘The Best of Sade’ dominates, ‘Promise’ slides a single rung to No. 15.”
“The Best of Sade” features songs from the band’s first four studio albums, “Diamond Life,” “Promise,” “Stronger Than Pride” and “Love Deluxe.” Since its release, the compilation has achieved four platinum certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America, for a total of over 4 million copies sold and streamed in the US.
Despite releasing just two studio albums in the past fifteen years, Sade’s continued success demonstrates the catalog’s enduring value in the modern streaming era.
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