By Your Side

This love song is about a person’s undying love for someone and the video for it is a metaphor for Sade Adu’s life. The idea for the video came when Sade Adu and director Muller were driving to the studio, they saw people standing in the median of the road selling flowers. After seeing that, Muller then got the idea for the video and thought “it was so sad to be constantly rejected by these cars ” and thought “Well, it’s not such a bad job to be looking at beautiful flowers all day.” And this how the concept of someone who has been away, and was just standing offering a flower to someone came about. It had been 8 years since the group Sade released an album, and the flower that Sade Adu offers to people passing by at the end of the video symbolizes the band’s latest album, Lovers Rock, that she is offering to the world. Sade Adu is depicted as a mystical figure in the video, and she is mostly seen walking through a forest and into the city. She is also walks through different scenes, she gathers items such as a rose and a burned wood stick, and puts them in a small sack. At the end of the video, she walks into the city and is seen in the median of the road offering the rose like a flower seller. This strange journey represents her life but “made into a beautiful, mysterious dream.

Release Date: October 13, 2000 (UK)
January 21, 2001 (US)

Songwriter/s: Sade Adu – Andrew Hale – Stuart Matthewman – Paul Spencer Denman.

Label: Epic

Chart Rankings: In the UK, the song peaked at number 17 on the Official Charts Company. In the US it reached number 41 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and peaked at 75 on the Billboard Hot 100, at number 18 on the Adult Contemporary and at number 2 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play. Around the world it reached number 2 in Spain, number 10 in Italy, 29 in Ireland and Sweden, 67 in Germany and peaked at number 61 in Switzerland.

Artist’s age on Release Date: Helen Folasade Adu aka Sade Adu was 41 years old, and the band Sade was active for 19 years when this song was released.

Cover Versions: Beachwood Sparks – The 1975 – Jonas Blue – Billy McCarthy – M.O.P – Gayngs – Frank Ocean – Ben Taylor – LeAnn rimes with Trevor Lawrence – Free Cake for Every Creature – Jackie Lopez – Alex Serra – Justin Nozuka – Tenelle Luafalemana – Amands Wood – and many more Youtubers covered this song.