Friday, July 16, 2021

Music Friday: Sade Sings About a Jewel Box Life, Diamond Nights and Ruby Lights

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you spectacular songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. Today, we feature the silky, soaring vocals of Grammy-award-winning Helen Folasade Adu, better known as Sade. In the original version of her 1984 hit, “Smooth Operator,” she employs all three Music Friday qualifiers to tell the story of a globetrotting playboy.

The original, longer version of the song features a spoken-word intro that includes the phrase, “Jewel box life, diamond nights and ruby lights.” Because the song ran about five minutes, many radio DJs chose to use the abbreviated version (about a minute shorter) that deletes the spoken lead-in and starts, instead, with the familiar instrumental saxophone solo and line, “Diamond life, lover boy.”

Later in the song, Sade uses a precious-metal metaphor: “A license to love, insurance to hold. Melts all your memories, change into gold.”

As the second single from Sade's debut studio album, Diamond Life, “Smooth Operator” became her biggest U.S. hit, topping out at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #1 on the Billboard US Adult Contemporary chart. It was also an international sensation, charting in 14 countries. Diamond Life would go on to sell more than 10 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of the 1980s.

Born in Ibadan, Nigeria, Sade moved to Essex, England, to live with her grandmother after her parents separated when she was four years old. She took a three-year course in fashion design at London's Saint Martin's School of Art and modeled briefly before joining a band called Pride as a backup singer.

Within a short time, she was offered the opportunity to perform her song, "Smooth Operator," which attracted the attention of record companies. She formed her own band called Sade and, in 1983, scored a recording contract with Epic Records. Just one year later, she would become an international sensation with the release of Diamond Life.

The 62-year-old singer-songwriter is one of the most successful female solo artists in British history, having sold more than 110 million albums worldwide. In 1986, Sade earned a Grammy Award for Best New Artist. In 2012, she took the 30th spot on VH1’s list of the 100 Greatest Women in Music.

Please check out the video of Sade's live performance of “Smooth Operator.” (Yes, it’s the preferred long version). The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along.

“Smooth Operator”
Written by Sade Adu and Ray St. John. Performed by Sade.

He's laughing with another girl
And playing with another heart
Placing high stakes, making hearts ache
He's loved in seven languages
Jewel box life, diamond nights and ruby lights, high in the sky
Heaven help him, when he falls

Diamond life, lover boy
He move in space with minimum waste and maximum joy
City lights and business nights
When you require streetcar desire for higher heights

No place for beginners or sensitive hearts
When sentiment is left to chance
No place to be ending but somewhere to start

No need to ask
He's a smooth operator
Smooth operator, smooth operator
Smooth operator

Coast to coast, LA to Chicago, western male
Across the north and south, to Key Largo, love for sale

Face to face, each classic case
We shadow box and double cross
Yet need the chase

A license to love, insurance to hold
Melts all your memories and change into gold
His eyes are like angels but his heart is cold

No need to ask
He's a smooth operator
Smooth operator, smooth operator
Smooth operator

Coast to coast, LA to Chicago, western male
Across the north and south, to Key Largo, love for sale

Smooth operator, smooth operator
Smooth operator, smooth operator
Smooth operator, smooth operator
Smooth operator, smooth operator
Smooth operator, smooth operator

Credit: Photo by Thilo Parg, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Wednesday, July 14, 2021

Exceptional 39-Carat Blue Diamond From Iconic Cullinan Mine Sells for $1MM Per Carat

De Beers and Diacore just jointly acquired an exceptional 39.34-carat blue rough diamond sourced at South Africa's iconic Cullinan Mine for $40.1 million, or just over $1 million per carat.

Discovered by Petra Diamonds in April and sold to the De Beers/Diacore partnership via a special tender on Monday, the extraordinarily rare stone has the industry buzzing because it is remarkably similar to a blue diamond unearthed at the same mine in 2014.

That 29.6-carat rough stone was subsequently purchased by luxury jeweler Cora International for $25.6 million ($846,000 per carat) and transformed into a 12.03-carat, internally flawless, cushion-cut, fancy vivid blue headliner that would be named The Blue Moon of Josephine.

In 2015, the polished gem was sold at a Sotheby’s auction for $48.5 million, or more than $4 million per carat. It was the highest price per carat ever paid for a diamond.

The Blue Moon of Josephine maintained nearly 41% of its total weight during the cutting process. If the same holds true for the 39.34-carat blue diamond, the result would be a 16-carat finished gem. At $4 million per carat, the gem could be worth $64 million.

“This sets a new milestone for Petra in achieving its highest price for a single stone,” commented the mining company's chief executive officer, Richard Duffy.

Tasked with unlocking the hidden beauty in the rough and creating a spectacular polished diamond is Diacore, a specialty cutter that has produced a number of high-profile diamonds, including the 203.04-carat De Beers Millennium Star and the 59.60-carat Pink Star.

The 39.34-carat rough diamond was unearthed in the C-Cut of Cullinan, a mine located at the foothills of the Magaliesberg mountain range, 37 kilometers northeast of Pretoria in South Africa.

In an ironic twist, De Beers sold the Cullinan mine to Petra in 2007.

The Cullinan Mine is arguably the world’s most heralded diamond mine, having produced seven of the world’s 50 largest rough diamonds based on carat weight, including the largest ever found — the 3,106-carat Cullinan Diamond.

Discovered in 1905, the Cullinan Diamond was divided into nine major finished stones, each of which took the Cullinan name and a Roman numeral. Two of the gems are part of the the British Crown Jewels — the Great Star of Africa (Cullinan I) at 530.4 carats and the Second Star of Africa (Cullinan II) at 317.4 carats.

In addition to producing world-class white diamonds, the Cullinan mine is also the world’s most important source of blue diamonds. Blue diamonds owe their color to the presence of boron in the chemical makeup of the gem..

Scientists believe blue diamonds are among the deepest-formed diamonds ever found, created at depths in excess of 500km (310 miles) below the Earth’s surface.

Credit: Image courtesy of Petra Diamonds.

Monday, July 12, 2021

Seattle Adventurer Pops the Question From Summit of Mt. Everest, Setting U.S. Record

A Seattle adventurer now holds the American record for the world's "highest" marriage proposal — and we mean elevation.

On the morning of May 23, Andrew Hughes reached the summit of Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world at 29,032 feet. But instead of basking in his accomplishment of having climbed all Seven Summits (the highest mountain on each of the seven continents), his focus was on a much bigger dream of declaring to his girlfriend, Lauren Beard, from atop the world that her love was his world.

In the thin air 5.5 miles above sea level, an exhausted Hughes reached into an inner pocket, dropped to his knees and unfurled a small flag that read, "Lauren, will you marry me?"

While Hughes had just set a new record for the highest known wedding proposal by any American ever — and only the second known proposal from the summit of Everest — he did not get an immediate answer. That's because Beard was not on the climbing expedition and didn't know about his intentions.

And so the Everest proposal remained a secret held alone by those on the summit.

Back in Seattle on July 3, while boating across Lake Washington, Hughes presented Beard with a small box. Inside was a photo of his Everest proposal wrapped in the flag he carried to the summit.

Beard responded with a long-awaited "Yes."

The Everest expedition had taken its toll on Hughes. The adventurer had to overcome a lung infection, cold injuries and more than 20 pounds of weight loss. He and his team endured extreme conditions from cyclone weather systems and survived ice fall collapses.

"When you arrive in such summit moments in life, you also arrive at a realization that no summit is arrived at absent the love and support of all of those in one's life," said Hughes. "And that while summits are meaningful, it is those you love in your life [who] truly matter."

He said that making his girlfriend and their shared love central to the Everest moment was the most important part of reaching the summit.

In addition to conquering the Seven Summits, Hughes established a unique record on Antarctica. In 2020, he became the first American man and third person ever to complete the Antarctica Trifecta by consecutively "Skiing the Last Degree to the South Pole" and reaching the summits of Mount Vinson (Antarctica's highest mountain) and Mount Sidley (its highest volcano).

Credits: Images courtesy of Andrew Hughes.