Henry Olusegun Adeola Samuel (born 19 February 1963), better known as Seal, is a British pop and R&B singer who is best-known (at least in the United States) for his hits "Crazy" and "Kiss from a Rose". He was born in London to an Afro-Brazilian father and Nigerian mother. Seal has won numerous music awards throughout his career, including four Grammy Awards and an MTV Video Music Award.
One of the other things Seal is known for besides his music are the rather impressive scars on his face. Over the years, rumors about those scars have ranged from them being African tribal scars to the result of a gunshot wound to being the result of a failed suicide attempt. The truth is actually pretty mundane: they are the result of a childhood illness known as discoid lupus erythematosus, a condition that affects the skin of the head and neck.
He married German supermodel Heidi Klum in 2004, but by 2012 the couple had legally separated. Their divorce wasn't finalized until 2014.
In addition to recording albums and touring, Seal was one of the four coaches on The Voice Australia during its first and second seasons, and won both of those seasons (guiding both the 2012 champion, Karise Eden, and the 2013 champion, Harrison Craig, to victory).
Studio discography
- Seal (1991)
- Seal (a.k.a. Seal II; 1994)
- Human Being (1998)
- Seal IV (2003)
- System (2007)
- Soul (2008) — His first cover album.
- Seal 6: Commitment (2010) — His sixth album with original songs.
- Soul 2 (2011) — His second cover album.
- 7 (2015) — His seventh album with original songs.
- Standards (2017) — His third cover album.
Baby, I compare you to a kiss from a trope on the gray:
- Adam Westing: Appeared as himself in Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping.
- Call-Back: In his cover of "Fly Like an Eagle" he drops in the line "In a world full of people only some want to fly" from his own song "Crazy".
- Cover Album: His albums Soul and Soul 2 contain nothing but covers of soul classics. Standards contains jazz and swing standards.
- Distinguishing Mark: His famous cheek marks, a side effect of a type of lupus called discoid lupus erythematosus. It's so associated with him that he's the page image for that specific condition
on The Other Wiki. - Greatest Hits Album: Two; Best 1991–2004 (2004) and Hits (2009).
- In the Style of: He's admitted that "Waiting for You" is a stylistic pastiche of Stevie Wonder.
- Jump Cut: The video for "Prayer for the Dying", the lead single from his 1994 self-titled album (though not the most successful), features an impressive number of these.
- Me's a Crowd: In the music video for "Crazy".
- Overly Long Name: Thank goodness he has that stage name in hand.
- Self-Titled Album: Four of them! Though the third is referred to as Seal IV for being his fourth album, and his seventh album is numbered six (because it's his sixth one with original songs) and has a subtitle.
- Uncommon Time: "Dreaming in Metaphors" is in 7/8 time.
- Video Full of Film Clips: Given he has a tendency to perform in soundtrack songs, "Kiss from a Rose".(Batman Forever, where he even stands besides the Batsignal), "Fly Like an Eagle" (Space Jam - made by the same director, who has told Seal never forgave him for still putting Bugs Bunny in the video) and "This Could Be Heaven" (The Family Man).
