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    Music matters

    No need for oysters before this show: Sade and John Legend bring the love toToyota Center

    Michael D. Clark
    Jul 22, 2011 | 10:17 pm

    Looking for a can't miss love cocktail for the weekend?

    Take one part Sade and add just a smidgen of John Legend. Shake it up on Saturday night downtown at the Toyota Center and let the sparks fly where they may.

    Back in May I predicted in the summer concert preview that the Sade/John Legend swoon-fest that is about to descend on Houston would be the can't-miss live music performance of the season. Some thought I had I had finally huffed too many Sharpie fumes.

    Few other concerts on the summer calendar, however, have a one-two punch built to perfectly draw a multi-generational, multi-cultural crowd.

    With Britney Spears, Rihanna, Motley Crue and a slew of other hot shot pop stars and classic rock legends playing in the area this summer, how dare I dub this night of "smooth jazz"oldies (a radio term for which I have yet to find a plausible definition) and soulful piano refrains the best? Even CultureMap Editor-in-Chief Clifford Pugh gave me the e-mail equivalent of a raised eyebrow.

    (Which was funny, because he's witnessed me say — and write — far more ridiculous declarations than this one over the years.)

    Nearly three months later and I am standing by my statement.

    True, many of these other shows had a lot of flash, glitz and pretty people posing as the cooed catchy choruses that we all like to sing-along with. Few other concerts on the calendar, however, have a one-two punch built to perfectly draw a multi-generational, multi-cultural crowd. Some ticket holders will be more excited about Grammy-winning, ivory-tickling, velvet-croon of opener John Legend than they will be for the 27 years of "quiet storm" — that's another term that I have trouble putting my ears around —hits by headliner Sade.

    But the one thing that none of those other shows have is the pitch-perfect delivery, exotic beauty and ageless sexiness that has defined Sade's multi-Grammy, multi-platinum career.

    Sade is to beauty what Chuck Norris is to toughness or that Dos Equis pitchman The Most Interesting Man in the World is to being... well, interesting.

    In that vein, I even thought up a couple of bon mots to describe Sade's sensuality.

    - Sade doesn't step up to a microphone to sing. The microphone eagerly sacrifices itself to her.

    - When Sade walks across a concert stage, the boards under her feet mute her graceful steps in gratitude.

    - Though Sade has sold millions of albums and enjoyed many successful singles like "Smooth Operator" and "The Sweetest Taboo," over the years, she has never enjoyed a chart-topping single. I guess there had to be something that stopped her from ascending to the heavens as a perfect angel.

    You can see where I'm going with this.

    But don't take my word for it. Go. Arrive early. Enjoy the show. And afterward I ask you acknowledge that this is not only one of the most surprising concerts of the year, but one of the most memorable.

    Sade with special guest John Legend, Saturday 7:30 p.m. at Toyota Center

    Tickets: $49.50-$149.50
    unspecified
    news/entertainment

    The Year's Best Films

    Starpower and expert storytelling define the 10 best movies of 2025

    Alex Bentley
    Dec 30, 2025 | 3:30 pm
    Idris Elba in A House of Dynamite
    Photo by Eros Hoagland
    Idris Elba in A House of Dynamite.


    Idris Elba in A House of Dynamite

    Photo by Eros Hoagland

    Idris Elba in A House of Dynamite.

    While much of the focus on award-worthy movies is put on those that come out in the final months of the year, the release dates for the ones that made the list of CultureMap's Best Movies of 2025 spanned nine months, from mid-March to late December. The one thing they all had in common was an attention to storytelling, with the occasional burst of starpower to put them over the top.


    Scroll through CultureMap's picks of the 10 best films of 2025 by using the left and right arrows on each photo.

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