It had recently become a little quieter around Seal. The big hits by the popular British singer, including “Crazy” and “Kiss From A Rose”, can still be heard regularly on the radio today. But it has been more than seven years since his last studio album with new songs. Seal hasn’t given concerts in Europe for a long time either.
“I’ve never been one to put out music just to release something,” Seal said in an interview with Classic Pop magazine. “I don’t need to keep up to date or be in the public eye. I only make music when I have something to say. If that’s not the case, I pursue another passion. I play tennis.”
After all, the musician, whose real name is Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel, will soon be back on stage. For his 60th birthday on Sunday (February 19) he announces a big world tour. At the upcoming concerts he wants to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his first two albums and sing his greatest hits.
You can’t be too precise about the date of the anniversary. His solo debut “Seal” was released in 1991, the successor of the same name, but usually called “Seal II”, was not released until 1994. The two albums established the London native as a top star. He became known through the acid house anthem “Killer”, a collaboration with the British DJ and producer Adamski.
“It changed my life,” Seal recalled in the British “Guardian”. “In a week, I went from being pretty much a nobody – the odd guy at raves with bits of silver in his hair – to a household name.” He didn’t keep the iconic look with the strikingly adorned dreadlocks for long, his hair came off shortly afterwards. Now 60, Seal doesn’t look much different than he did when he was 30.
However, his personal life is not as much of a tabloid headline issue today as it was when he was married to German supermodel Heidi Klum and was followed by paparazzi everywhere. The marriage lasted from 2004 to 2014. The separation took place in 2012. Seal is now married again. In the “Classic Pop” interview he recently said: “Home is where the heart is, with my family: my beautiful wife, my dogs.”
The marriage to Klum has three children, and he also adopted her daughter Leni, who emerged from the relationship with Italian Formula One manager Flavio Briatore and was born when Seal and Klum were already a couple. Accordingly, Seal raised Leni as his own daughter. Even after the separation dispute with Heidi Klum, which was partly carried out through the media, Seal and Leni appear together in public. The two were just spotted together on the red carpet at the premiere of the film “Shotgun Wedding” in Los Angeles.
Seal’s new wife is reportedly Laura Strayer, his and Klum’s former assistant. The singer with the soft voice still doesn’t seem to be on good terms with Klum. In 2020, the ex-couple even went to court when Klum wanted to take the children to Germany to film “Germany’s Next Top Model”. A year later, Seal criticized his ex-wife for a lack of teamwork in raising children in US Weekly.
Seal himself grew up in difficult family circumstances. He was born in Paddington, London, in 1963 to a Brazilian father and a Nigerian mother. He lived with a foster family for the first few years before his biological mother took him back. However, she soon left him to her ex-husband – and a life marked by domestic violence. During this time, Seal developed the autoimmune disease lupus erythematosus, which is also the cause of his deep facial scars.
“I don’t regret anything that happened when I was a kid,” Seal told Hello! magazine. “It was all crucial in making me who I am today.” He moved out at the age of 15 and from then on worked as a courier driver or as an employee in fast-food restaurants. He studied architecture, but increasingly devoted himself to music. “When I was 23, I made a conscious decision,” he told Classic Pop, “I knew what it felt like to be on stage and I said to myself, ‘Now I’m going to do it.'”
He even toured Japan with the funk band Push, after which he was a member of a blues band in Thailand. But it wasn’t until he returned to the UK, where the burgeoning acid house scene was making waves, that his breakthrough came when he met Adamski and “Killer” became a cross-genre hit. Seal has won four Grammys, three of them in 1996 for the single “Kiss From A Rose”.
Star producer Trevor Horn (Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Yes, Grace Jones), who produced Seal’s first three studio albums and has continued to work with him since then, also played a major role in Seal’s successful career. “I still see him as the older brother I never had,” Seal told Classic Pop, “someone I can confide in.”
The founder of the band The Buggles (“Video Killed The Radiostar”) joins the upcoming Seal anniversary tour as musical director. Horn will play in Seal’s band and will also open as part of the Buggles. The tour will initially only take Seal through North America. But in the “Classic Pop” interview, he gave his fans hope. Dates in Europe should follow “in the near future”.
Seal Official Website Seal – Killer (Music Video) Seal – Crazy (Music Video)
