Seal

Seal, born Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel on 19 February 1963 and hailing from Paddington, signed with Trevor Horn's ZTT label for his self-titled debut in 1991, and it was a triumph. "Crazy" reached number two in the UK and "Killer" went all the way to number one, both with a sound nobody else had: a rich, soulful voice floating over a sleek bed of pop, house, electronica and R&B, dramatic and danceable at once. Both songs later won him Ivor Novello Awards for songwriting, and "Future Love Paradise" was cut from the same cloth.

In 1994 he released a second album also called Seal, and like the first it went to number one in Britain. "Prayer For The Dying" brooded magnificently, but "Kiss from a Rose" was its secret weapon: the swooning ballad topped the Hot 100 after landing on the soundtracks of The NeverEnding Story III and Batman Forever. In 1995 he took home Grammys for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

The albums have kept coming, from Human Being in 1998 to Standards in 2017, and by now the tally runs to 3 Brit Awards, 4 Grammys and more than 20 million albums and singles sold. He has also spent time as a coach on The Voice Australia.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.