With over 30 million albums produced, Seal has left an indelible mark on pop, R&B, soul and dance music. A versatile force in popular culture, his palette includes such anthems as "Killer", "Crazy" and "Kiss From A Rose", which have left a lasting impression, and his collaborations with artists as diverse as Jeff Beck, Santana, P!nk and John Legend.
In such a rock-hard world, could there be a place for someone like Seal—an artist who didn’t sound and look like anyone on the scene at the time? In fact, the music on Seal’s self-titled debut, which appeared in May 1991, didn’t suit any set genre. It roamed freely between the worlds of dance, soul, rock, jazz, and symphonic music, sometimes all within the same song. And odd songs they were, with structures that evolved in surprising ways. Surprising, too, was the man who sang them: Standing six-foot-four and bedecked in dreads laced with silver while proudly displaying a face scarred for what was, then, a mysterious reason, Seal cut a figure some could find jarring. Yet there was no denying one thing: The singularity of his voice—a finely textured instrument at once sensitive and forceful, reassuring and robust.
“For years I’d go around to record companies, and they’d all say the same thing,” says Seal. “’He’s got an interesting voice that doesn’t sound like anybody else’s, but what is he? Is he a soul artist? I was always seen as an outsider. But that’s how I wanted it. I didn’t want to fit in.”
As well as appearing in films by iconic directors such as Spike Lee and Joel Schumacher, his music has been celebrated with covers of Alanis Morissette, Bastille and George Michael.
