BLACK HISTORY MONTH THROWBACK SPOTLIGHT: Happy Birthday SEAL!

Let’s start off this tribute to Seal with a big ole’ HAPPY BIRTHDAY from all of us at Throwback Nation! The London-born singer/songwriter turns 58 today. And, to answer one of the most popular questions about him, yes – Seal is part of his real name. His full name (good luck pronouncing it) is Sealhenry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel, so it’s pretty clear why he chose to go with “Seal” as his stage name.

To answer the other burning question, he got the scars on his face from a form of lupus called DLE. Seal has admitted in the past that the scars, while bringing him depression in his younger years, have ultimately made him a stronger person.

His smooth-as-butter vocals catapulted his very first single, Crazy, to a massive hit and would remain his most commercially-successful song from his self-titled debut album. It arrived in the United States in 1991 and stayed on the charts for 19 weeks, topping out at #7. Seal said that he wrote the song after being inspired by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Tiananmen Square massacre, saying, “I felt the world changing and I felt profound things happening.”

Honestly though, how could he have predicted where we’d be in 2021? Maybe it’s time for a remake? Or does the song, as it stands, still apply to our “crazy” world? Either way, a warm and wishful HAPPY BIRTHDAY in this Black History Month to Seal!