Kelela - Like A Tattoo (Sade cover) - Radio 1's Piano Sessions

What this video is

Recorded on October 11, 2017, just five days after the release of Kelela's debut album Take Me Apart on Warp Records, this BBC Radio 1 Piano Sessions performance documents a pivotal moment in alt-R&B's critical arc. Kelela's choice to cover Sade's 'Like A Tattoo' — from Love Deluxe (1992) — is culturally legible as a lineage statement: critics had already noted that Take Me Apart evokes the 'elegant melancholy of…

Why it matters

This session sits at the intersection of alt-R&B's mid-2010s critical apex and the neo-soul lineage it drew from. By covering Sade — whose Love Deluxe (1992) is a canonical touchstone for intimate, emotionally exposed R&B — Kelela explicitly maps her own artistic identity onto a legacy. The…