Seal

Singer, songwriter

For the Record…

Scored Hit With “Killer”

Overwhelmed by Fame

Released Another Unique Album

Selected discography

Sources

Eclectic British pop artist Seal told Rolling Stone’s David Thigpen, “All my songs are therapy. I’m giving therapy to myself.” After a splashy 1991 debut—including a Number One U.K. single and a top-selling album—he experienced several tumultuous and difficult years that caused him to confront the meaning of his sudden fame and, more importantly, his life.

Seal returned wiser and more assured with his 1994 sophomore effort, though in certain fundamental respects he was back where he began: with the same influential and supportive producer and the same title. Yet the variety of styles he enlisted—building on the already rich mixture of rock, soul, folk, and dance music that fills his first album—was, if anything, even greater. The journey to this achievement, as he told Q, necessitated a self-acceptance with which he struggled all his life. “You have to work out why you feel so undeserving,” he insisted, adding “you have to start healing and you have to start saying to yourself, OK, I am worth it, I do deserve this.”

Seal was born Sealhenry Olumide Samuel in London, England; his parents had moved there from Nigeria and divorced when he was still an infant. Raised first by foster parents and then by his own father, he had what he described to Rob Tannenbaum of Rolling Stone as “a rough childhood.” In an interview with Mark Cooper of Q he called his father “a bitter person who’d missed a lot of opportunities in life. I think he loved me but was just incapable of showing it.” Seal earned a degree in architecture and worked a variety of jobs, from electrical engineering to posting ads for London prostitutes; the latter occupation resulted in an arrest.

After trying to build a music career in London, Seal hooked up with a band called Push, playing funk music on tour in Japan. It was important more for geographical than for musical reasons: “I’d never been to that part of the equator before,” he noted to Tannenbaum. “It was right up my alley. Every day was a new experience.” After a jaunt with a Thailand blues group, he made his way to India and there had what he called “a few spiritual experiences.” The happiness he felt there, he insisted, bestowed a calm and contentment about his future and allowed him to stop wanting a record deal so fervently. He believes this is why he soon got one.

Seal also became convinced that the half-moon scars under his eyes left by a skin ailment were a kind of omen of stardom. “I got really depressed about [the scars] at first, as you can understand,” he recalled. “Now I really like them.” The scars, he ultimately reasoned, would serve as a kind of insignia. “If I could design something, I don’t think I could do it better.” He did design the rest

For the Record…

Born Sealhenry Olumide Samuel, February 19, 1963, in London, England; son of Francis (a plumber and interior decorator) and Bisi (a homemaker) Samuel; raised by father and stepmother, Joyce. Education: Received degree in architecture.

Recording and performing artist, c. late 1980s—. Joined first band, Stay Brave, at age 15; worked as designer of leather clothing and as an electrical engineer; toured Japan with member of funk group Push; sang with blues band in Thailand; released single “Killer,” a collaboration with Adam “Adamski” Tinley, 1990; signed with ZTT records and released debut album Seal, 1991; collaborated with Jeff Beck on contribution to Jimi Hendrix tribute album Stone Free, 1993.

Awards: Q award for Best New Act, 1991; Brit Awards for Best Album, Best Male Artist and Best Video, 1992; Grammy Award nomination for album of the year, 1995, for Seal.

Addresses: Record company —ZTT/Sire, 75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10019-6908. Fan club— P.O. Box 102, Stanmore, Middlesex HA7 2PY, England.

of his distinctive look: head-to-toe leather clothes and long dreadlocks, adding even more flash to his 6’4” frame.

Seal met producer Trevor Horn—who had made a fortune making records for the Art of Noise and Yes, among others, and had his own label, ZTT. “I thought he looked a bit frightening,” Horn remembered to Tannen-baum. “I thought he was gonna like all kinds of music I wasn’t gonna like. Then he told me he liked [folk-rockers] Crosby, Stills and Nash and Joni Mitchell. It was quite refreshing.” Even so, he was disinclined to sign the fledgling artist.

Scored Hit With “Killer”

In 1990, however, Seal took his fate into his hands, achieving immediate success that would grab the attention of Horn and much of the pop world. He co-wrote a song called “Killer” with British keyboardist Adamski, and its mix of dance and rock—helped by heartfelt singing and lyrics—took it to the top of the U.K. charts. “I remember the first time we got to No. 1,” he recollected in an interview with Giles Smith of The Independent, “Adamski and myself were in one of those family inn restaurants on a Sunday near Cambridge, [and] the week before we were No. 4 and [pop diva] Madonna was No. 1.” When they realized that “Killer” had gained the top position, “I let out this huge roar. Honestly, families around us were going for their children—there was this six-foot-four black man gone wild in Cambridgeshire.”

Seal was unprepared for what would follow. “I guess I was the epitome of the phrase ’meteoric success,’” he told Cooper of Q. “My kind of success was different because I had a hit record with something which wasn’t immediately commercial in the pop sense. I took [my song] Crazy round to lots of record companies before Killer and although everybody really liked it, they wouldn’t touch it. But if you manage to get a hit with a record like that, it’s like you’ve broken through with something which allows you so much room.” Soon ZTT found itself in competition with other labels that wanted to sign Seal; Horn’s company recruited the young artist by offering him artistic freedom and, as Seal himself told Tannen-baum of Rolling Stone, “quite a bit of money, too.”

Overwhelmed by Fame

Though Seal initially brought in various friends from the dance music world to help him produce the album, he eventually surrendered the reins to Horn. The producer told Tannenbaum that the singer’s crowd “were very interested in Chicago house music. I thought that was absurd, when you have that much talent. It’s limited—you don’t sit and listen to it. You can’t go to concerts and things like that.” The resulting album, Seal, appeared on ZTT/Sire in 1991 and complemented the dance-floor grooves with acoustic guitars and an overall emphasis on melody and song structure.

Rolling Stone writer Thigpen called the Seal’s debut album “a startlingly original synthesis that seemed to come from some undiscovered place along the axis of rock and soul.” Seal’s lyrics on this first album reflected what he later referred to in the Independent interview as a “very young, very idealistic” point of view: “if we only stick together we can save the world.” His travels in the east had made him “unstoppable in that respect.”

Seal was an international smash, thanks to “Killer” and “Crazy,” an idealistic slice of pop-funk that was soon co-opted for a television commercial. And Seal himself was overwhelmed by fame. “You live one way for 26 years, and then suddenly there’s a dramatic change,” he reflected to Thigpen. “Five years ago I would get annoyed when my dole [unemployment] check arrived a day late. The next thing I know, I’m getting pissed off if my limo didn’t turn up.”

Indeed, as Seal told Cooper, the experience “was completely the opposite of what I’d imagined. If you’re a sensitive person, like myself, you quickly realise that not everybody’s intentions are genuine. And, yes, you have more people around you, lots more people around you, but your space becomes much smaller. People come up to you constantly in the street and they treat you like you’re an alien.” Most tragically, “I thought that the adoration would replace the attention that I sought from my father. I thought success or fame would bring me all these things.” All of this led to “a very bad period when I had a lot of panic attacks.” As he complained to Rolling Stone, “I wanted the money. I wanted to be a millionaire. But fame can be a pain in the ass.”

Along with the anxiety, however, came laurels: the Q award for Best New Act of 1991, and three 1992 Brit Awards. Seal even performed at the Grammy Awards ceremony, though he took home no trophies. “The best thing that came out of the Grammys,” he reflected to Smith of the Independent, “was that I did an interview for the LA. Times and for the umpteenth time I was asked about my musical influences and for the umpteenth time I said I really like Joni Mitchell and reeled off this whole piece on why.” On tour in France two months afterward, Seal received flowers and a note that said “Thanks for appreciating the work, love Joni.” Seal had another brush with greatness when he joined British guitar legend Jeff Beck on a cover version of rock trailblazer Jimi Hendrix’s “Manic Depression” for the Hendrix tribute album Stone Free.

Released Another Unique Album

After relocating to Los Angeles, Seal gradually began work on a follow-up album. Intent on astylistic departure rather than a recreation of his debut, he selected a new producer. Steve Lillywhite, who’d worked with Irish rock superstars U2, among others, was his choice. But he soon asked Horn to take over. “Steve was wrong for all the reasons Trevor was the right producer,” he commented to Thigpen. “Trevor’s a musician first and foremost.”

The resulting album—again called Seal— replaced the debut’s pounding rhythms with slyer grooves, while Seal’s singing moved away from the anthemic shouts of his earlier hits and became more nuanced and intimate. The first single, “Prayerforthe Dying,” asober, reflective tune with an insistent funk beat, became a Top Ten hit. Jeff Beck played guitar on another track, “Bring It On,” and Joni Mitchell joined Seal for a duet in the song “If I Could.” It was difficult for Seal to stop working on the project. “One time, I was going to the airport and I just turned round and came back to do more vocals,” he confessed to Cooper. “I was dragged screaming from this record and so was Trevor. It was probably the most important thing about the whole record.”

Seal’s new look—a shaved head—at once represented a concession to California temperatures and a clean break from the past. He’d lived through a number of losses and near catastrophes between the two albums. “I had a really heavy duty car crash in California,” he told Cooper. “I nearly flew off a canyon on to a freeway a hundred feet below at peak hour. The car was completely written off and, miraculously, I walked away virtually unscathed. Then I got double pneumonia. The doctors said it was touch and go atone stage but I came out of that unscathed too, with no scarring on my lungs or anything. Then there was a shooting right in front of me on [Hollywood’s] Sunset Boulevard.”

Seal claimed that a London healer helped him recover from his illness and clarify his life; he appears on the cover of his second album in the nude, his newly shorn pate adding to the overall image of strength through vulnerability. “My whole approach to this record was one of openness,” he told Cooper. He also emphasized in various interviews that the “idealistic” world-saving stance of his first album had neglected the necessity of healing oneself—spiritually and otherwise—before one could truly help others. Part of this healing meant putting fame in perspective, and allowing his “celebrity” self to surface when he needed to protect his private self. “The days I wanted to be noticed, wanted some feedback,” he informed Smith in the Independent, “I could go out there and kind of exude and I’d get recognized,” becoming “Seal, pop star, impervious to everything.”

Seal the second was generally greeted with critical raves. “This British neo-soul singer’s gift flows from his ability to transform dancefloor tracks into spine-tingling, magical experiences,” enthused James Bernard of Entertainment Weekly, who gave the album an “A” grade. Reviewer Hobey Echlin of the Detroit Metro Times labeled the effort “Brilliant, subtle, indulgent and sentimental.” Thigpen noted that “Seal’s husky, expressive voice sounds even richer and more aged; the new record has an almost folky feel, with an undercurrent of melancholy and introspection that wasn’t there before.”

But it wasn’t so much good reviews as good old fashioned radio airplay that helped the achievement sink in. “Somebody played the single on the radio the other day,” Seal related to Smith. “I was speaking to my friend Oswald on the carphone. He said: They seem to be playing your record a lot.’ I said, rather grumpily: ’Really? Cos I haven’t heard it once.’ Ironically enough as I said that, it came on the radio. I said: ’Oswald: I’m going to have to call you back.’”

Pulling over to the side of the road, Seal finally appreciated the finished product. “I’d been listening to it as a song and now I wanted to hear this thing that Trevor had always talked about: I wanted to hear the record. It sounded better on the radio than it did on the stereo at home. And the DJ said, ’That was the new one from Seal—well worth waiting for.’” The feeling, he noted, was one he’d felt only occasionally: “almost unquantifi-able… just this rush.”

Selected discography

“Killer” (single), 1990.

Seal (includes “Killer” and “Crazy”), ZTT, 1991.

(With Jeff Beck) “Crosstown Traffic,” Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix, Reprise, 1993.

Seal (includes “Prayer for the Dying” and “If I Could”), ZTT, 1994.

Sources

Entertainment Weekly, June 3, 1994.

Guitar Player, October 1994.

The Independent, May 12, 1994.

Metro Times (Detroit), June 22, 1994.

Q, July 1994.

Rolling Stone, November 28, 1991; August 25, 1994.

—Simon Glickman

Seal

Singer, songwriter

Eclectic British pop artist Seal told Rolling Stone 's David Thigpen, "All my songs are therapy. I'm giving therapy to myself." After a splashy 1991 debut—including a number one single in the United Kingdom and a top-selling album—he experienced several tumultuous and difficult years that caused him to confront the meaning of his sudden fame and, more importantly, his life.

Seal returned wiser and more assured with his 1994 sophomore effort, though in certain fundamental respects he was back where he began: with the same influential and supportive producer and the same title. Yet the variety of styles he enlisted—building on the already rich mixture of rock, soul, folk, and dance music that fills his first album—was, if anything, even greater. The journey to this achievement, as he told Q, necessitated a self-acceptance with which he struggled all his life. "You have to work out why you feel so undeserving," he insisted, adding "you have to start healing and you have to start saying to yourself, OK, I am worth it, I do deserve this."

Had "A Rough Childhood"

Seal was born Sealhenry Olumide Samuel on February 19, 1963, in London, England; his parents had moved there from Nigeria and divorced when he was still an infant. Raised first by foster parents and then by his own father, he had what he described to Rob Tannenbaum of Rolling Stone as "a rough childhood." In an interview with Mark Cooper of Q he called his father "a bitter person who'd missed a lot of opportunities in life. I think he loved me but was just incapable of showing it." Seal earned a degree in architecture and worked a variety of jobs, from electrical engineering to posting ads for London prostitutes; the latter occupation resulted in an arrest.

After trying to build a music career in London, Seal hooked up with a band called Push, playing funk music on tour in Japan. It was important more for geographical than for musical reasons: "I'd never been to that part of the equator before," he noted to Tannenbaum. "It was right up my alley. Every day was a new experience." After a jaunt with a Thailand blues group, he made his way to India and there had what he called "a few spiritual experiences." The happiness he felt there, he insisted, bestowed a calm and contentment about his future and allowed him to stop wanting a record deal so fervently. He believes this is why he soon got one.

Seal also became convinced that the half-moon scars under his eyes left by a skin ailment were a kind of omen of stardom. "I got really depressed about [the scars] at first, as you can understand," he recalled. "Now I really like them." The scars, he ultimately reasoned, would serve as a kind of insignia. "If I could design something, I don't think I could do it better." He did design the rest of his distinctive look: head-to-toe leather clothes and long dreadlocks, adding even more flash to his 6'4" frame.

Seal met producer Trevor Horn—who had made a fortune making records for the Art of Noise and Yes, among others, and had his own label, ZTT. "I thought he looked a bit frightening," Horn remembered to Tannenbaum. "I thought he was gonna like all kinds of music I wasn't gonna like. Then he told me he liked Crosby, Stills and Nash and Joni Mitchell. It was quite refreshing." Even so, he was disinclined to sign the fledgling artist.

In 1990, however, Seal took his fate into his hands, achieving immediate success that would grab the attention of Horn and much of the pop world. He co-wrote a song called "Killer" with British keyboardist Adamski, and its mix of dance and rock—helped by heartfelt singing and lyrics—took it to the top of the U.K. charts. "I remember the first time we got to No. 1," he recollected in an interview with Giles Smith of the Independent, "Adamski and myself were in one of those family inn restaurants on a Sunday near Cambridge, the week before we were No. 4 and Madonna was No. 1." When they realized that "Killer" had gained the top position, "I let out this huge roar. Honestly, families around us were going for their children—there was this six-foot-four black man gone wild in Cambridgeshire."

Seal was unprepared for what would follow. "I guess I was the epitome of the phrase 'meteoric success,'" he told Cooper of Q. "My kind of success was different because I had a hit record with something which wasn't immediately commercial in the pop sense. I took [my song] 'Crazy' round to lots of record companies before 'Killer' and although everybody really liked it, they wouldn't touch it. But if you manage to get a hit with a record like that, it's like you've broken through with something which allows you so much room." Soon ZTT found itself in competition with other labels that wanted to sign Seal; Horn's company recruited the young artist by offering him artistic freedom and, as Seal himself told Tannenbaum of Rolling Stone, "quite a bit of money, too."

Though Seal initially brought in various friends from the dance music world to help him produce the album, he eventually surrendered the reins to Horn. The producer told Tannenbaum that the singer's crowds "were very interested in Chicago house music. I thought that was absurd, when you have that much talent. It's limited—you don't sit and listen to it. You can't go to concerts and things like that." The resulting album, Seal, appeared on ZTT/Sire in 1991 and complemented the dance-floor grooves with acoustic guitars and an overall emphasis on melody and song structure.

Debut Was An International Success

Rolling Stone writer Thigpen called the Seal's debut album "a startlingly original synthesis that seemed to come from some undiscovered place along the axis of rock and soul." Seal's lyrics on this first album reflected what he later referred to in the Independent interview as a "very young, very idealistic" point of view: "if we only stick together we can save the world." His travels in the east had made him "unstoppable in that respect."

For the Record . . .

Born Sealhenry Olumide Samuel on February 19, 1963, in London, England; son of Francis (a plumber and interior decorator) and Bisi (a homemaker) Samuel; raised by father and stepmother, Joyce. Education: Received degree in architecture.

Joined first band, Stay Brave, at age 15; worked as designer of leather clothing and as an electrical engineer; toured Japan with member of funk group Push; sang with blues band in Thailand; released single "Killer," a collaboration with Adam "Adamski" Tinley, 1990; signed with ZTT records and released debut album Seal, 1991; collaborated with Jeff Beck on contribution to Jimi Hendrix tribute album Stone Free, 1993; released Seal, 1994; released single, "Kiss From A Rose," which was featured in the movie Batman Forever, 1995; released Human Being, 1998; released Seal VI, 2003.

Awards: Q Award, Best New Act, 1991; Brit Awards, Best Album, Best Male Artist, and Best Video, 1992; Grammy Awards, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male for "Kiss From A Rose," 1995.

Addresses: Record company— Warner Bros., 3300 Warner Blvd., Burbank, CA 91595, phone: (818) 846-9090, website: http://www.wbr.com. Website— Seal Official Website: http://www.seal.com/.

Seal was an international smash, thanks to "Killer" and "Crazy," an idealistic slice of pop-funk that was soon co-opted for a television commercial. And Seal himself was overwhelmed by fame. Indeed, as Seal told Cooper, the experience "was completely the opposite of what I'd imagined. If you're a sensitive person, like myself, you quickly realise that not everybody's intentions are genuine. And, yes, you have more people around you, lots more people around you, but your space becomes much smaller. People come up to you constantly in the street and they treat you like you're an alien." Most tragically, "I thought that the adoration would replace the attention that I sought from my father. I thought success or fame would bring me all these things."

After relocating to Los Angeles, Seal gradually began work on a follow-up album. Intent on a stylistic departure rather than a recreation of his debut, he selected a new producer. Steve Lillywhite, who'd worked with Irish rock superstars U2, among others, was his choice. But he soon asked Horn to take over. "Steve was wrong for all the reasons Trevor was the right producer," he commented to Thigpen. "Trevor's a musician first and foremost."

The resulting album—again called Seal —replaced the debut's pounding rhythms with slyer grooves, while Seal's singing moved away from the anthemic shouts of his earlier hits and became more nuanced and intimate. The first single, "Prayer for the Dying," a sober, reflective tune with an insistent funk beat, became a top ten hit. Jeff Beck played guitar on another track, "Bring It On," and Joni Mitchell joined Seal for a duet in the song "If I Could." It was difficult for Seal to stop working on the project. "One time, I was going to the airport and I just turned round and came back to do more vocals," he confessed to Cooper. "I was dragged screaming from this record and so was Trevor. It was probably the most important thing about the whole record."

Seal's new look—a shaved head—at once represented a concession to California temperatures and a clean break from the past. He'd lived through a number of losses and near catastrophes between the two albums. "I had a really heavy duty car crash in California," he told Cooper. "I nearly flew off a canyon on to a freeway a hundred feet below at peak hour. The car was completely written off and, miraculously, I walked away virtually unscathed. Then I got double pneumonia. The doctors said it was touch and go at one stage but I came out of that unscathed too, with no scarring on my lungs or anything. Then there was a shooting right in front of me on [Hollywood's] Sunset Boulevard."

Seal claimed that a London healer helped him recover from his illness and clarify his life; he appears on the cover of his second album in the nude, his newly shorn pate adding to the overall image of strength through vulnerability. "My whole approach to this record was one of openness," he told Cooper. He also emphasized in various interviews that the "idealistic" world-saving stance of his first album had neglected the necessity of healing oneself—spiritually and otherwise—before one could truly help others. Part of this healing meant putting fame in perspective, and allowing his "celebrity" self to surface when he needed to protect his private self. "The days I wanted to be noticed, wanted some feedback," he informed Smith in the Independent, "I could go out there and kind of exude and I'd get recognized," becoming "Seal, pop star, impervious to everything."

Seal the second was generally greeted with critical raves. "This British neo-soul singer's gift flows from his ability to transform dancefloor tracks into spine-tingling, magical experiences," enthused James Bernard of Entertainment Weekly, who gave the album an "A" grade. Reviewer Hobey Echlin, of Detroit's Metro Times, labeled the effort "Brilliant, subtle, indulgent and sentimental." Thigpen noted that "Seal's husky, expressive voice sounds even richer and more aged; the new record has an almost folky feel, with an undercurrent of melancholy and introspection that wasn't there before."

Realized His Own Accomplishments

But it wasn't so much good reviews as good old fashioned radio airplay that helped the achievement sink in. "Somebody played the single on the radio the other day," Seal related to Smith. "I was speaking to my friend Oswald on the carphone. He said: 'They seem to be playing your record a lot.' I said, rather grumpily: 'Really? Cos I haven't heard it once.' Ironically enough as I said that, it came on the radio. I said: 'Oswald: I'm going to have to call you back.'"

Pulling over to the side of the road, Seal finally appreciated the finished product. "I'd been listening to it as a song and now I wanted to hear this thing that Trevor had always talked about: I wanted to hear the record. It sounded better on the radio than it did on the stereo at home. And the DJ said, 'That was the new one from Seal—well worth waiting for.'" The feeling, he noted, was one he'd felt only occasionally: "almost unquantifiable … just this rush."

In 1995, Seal released the single, "Kiss From A Rose," which was featured in the blockbuster hit movie Batman Forever. Joel Schumacher, the music video director for "Kiss From A Rose" talked about Seal in Entertainment Weekly, "He sings with his whole body and his hands and his fingers. He is very sensual." Seal won three Grammy Awards for "Kiss From A Rose," including Record of the Year, in 1995.

Seal then set out to create a third album. "I wanted to make a more raw record," he stated for Time. "Not as produced. I wanted to make sure it was more open, more from the heart." Originally, he signed Horn to produce it. Then, he explored ideas with two other producers, eventually coming back to Horn. "[Seal] got a bit manic with the whole thing," Horn told Time. "He was going through a fair amount of turmoil as we started working. By the end of the record it was like having an old friend back. Taking people, calling them a star, it screws people's heads up. It did change him a bit."

The result was Human Being, released in 1998. Most of the numbers are love songs, but he also explores race issues in "Colours," questioning if there would still be discrimination if there were no race issues.

After Human Being, Seal worked for three and a half years on a follow up album, but was suffering from a creative block. In frustration, he sold his Los Angeles home and moved back to England. "I think I needed to be around the smells, the sounds, the pace, the grind of London," he told People. After eighteen months in London he produced an album that was entirely different from what he had been working on in the United States. Again, he titled it Seal. People reviewer Chuck Arnold praised Seal for remaining "a unique talent, singing about love and longing with a richly textured voice that is at once soothing, sensual and oh-so-soulful."

Selected discography

"Killer" (single), 1990.

Seal, ZTT, 1991.

(Contributor) Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix, Reprise, 1993.

Seal, ZTT, 1994.

(Contributor) Batman Forever (soundtrack), Atlantic, 1995.

Human Being, Warner Brothers, 1998.

Seal IV, Warner Brothers, 2003.

Sources

Periodicals

Entertainment Weekly, June 3, 1994; February 16, 1996.

Guitar Player, October 1994.

Independent, May 12, 1994.

Metro Times (Detroit, MI), June 22, 1994.

People, September 15, 2003.

Q, July 1994.

Rolling Stone, November 28, 1991; August 25, 1994.

Time, November 16, 1998.

Online

Recording Academy Grammy Awards, http://www.grammy.com (January 27, 2004).

—Simon Glickman and Sarah Parkin

seal¹ / sēl/ • n. 1. a device or substance that is used to join two things together so as to prevent them from coming apart or to prevent anything from passing between them: blue smoke from the exhaust suggests worn valve seals. ∎  [in sing.] the state or fact of being joined or rendered impervious by such a substance or device: many fittings have tapered threads for a better seal. ∎  the water standing in the trap of a drain to prevent sewer gas from backing up through the drain, considered in terms of its depth. 2. a piece of wax, lead, or other material with an individual design stamped into it, attached to a document to show that it has come from the person who claims to have issued it. ∎  a design embossed in paper for this purpose. ∎  an engraved device used for stamping a design that authenticates a document. ∎ fig. a thing regarded as a confirmation or guarantee of something: the International Monetary Fund is likely to give a seal of approval to the Mexican plan. ∎  a decorative adhesive stamp. ∎  (the seal) (also the seal of confession or the seal of the confessional) the obligation on a priest not to divulge anything said during confession: I was told under the seal.• v. [tr.] fasten or close securely: he folded it, sealed the envelope, and walked to the mailbox. ∎  (seal something in) prevent something from escaping by closing a container or opening. ∎  (seal something off) isolate an area by preventing or monitoring entrance to and exit from it: anti-terrorist squad officers sealed off the area to search for possible bombs. ∎  apply a nonporous coating to (a surface) to make it impervious: seal the finish with a satin varnish. ∎  fry (food) briefly in hot fat to prevent it from losing too much of its moisture during subsequent cooking: heat the oil and seal the lamb on both sides. ∎  fix a piece of wax or lead stamped with a design to (a document) to authenticate it. ∎  conclude, establish, or secure (something) definitively, excluding the possibility of reversal or loss: to seal the deal he offered Thornton a place on the board of the nascent company. ∎  (in the Mormon church) mark (a marriage or adoption) as eternally binding in a formal ceremony.PHRASES: my (or his, etc.) lips are sealed used to convey that one will not discuss or reveal something.put (or set) the seal on give the final authorization to: the UN envoy hopes to set the seal on a lasting peace. ∎  provide or constitute the final confirmatory or conclusive factor: the rain set the seal on his depression.seal someone's fatesee fate.set (or put) one's seal to (or on) mark with one's distinctive character: it was the Stewart dynasty which most markedly set its seal on the place.under seal under legal protection of secrecy: the judge ordered that the videotape be kept under seal.DERIVATIVES: seal·a·ble adj.seal² • n. a fish-eating aquatic mammal with a streamlined body and feet developed as flippers, returning to land to breed or rest. Two families: Phocidae (the true seals) and Otariidae (the eared seals, including the fur seals and sea lions). ∎ another term for sealskin.• v. [intr.] [usu. as n.] (sealing) hunt for seals.

SEAL

Born: Sealhenry Olumide Samuel; Paddington, London, England, 19 February 1963

Genre: Rock, R&B

Best-selling album since 1990: Seal (1994)

Hit songs since 1990: "Crazy," "Kiss from a Rose," "Prayer for the Dying"

Fusing techno dance rhythms with classic soul, Seal was one of the most commercially successful English R&B acts of the late 1990s.

Born to Brazilian and Nigerian parents, Seal grew up in England along with his five brothers. He graduated from school with an architectural degree and bounced around in odd jobs before joining an English funk band called Push. Push's tour itinerary took Seal as far as Japan; he later joined a blues band in Thailand and spent time in India as well.

Returning to England, Seal found the London club scene and radio waves dominated by the electronic beats and ambient sounds of techno music. Seal hooked up with techno producer Adamski and provided lyrics and vocals for Adamski's demo "Killer." Released to clubs and later to radio, "Killer" became a Top 15 hit in the United Kingdom and established Seal as an up-and-coming artist.

Sire Records signed Seal to a recording contract and released his self-titled debut album in 1991. The single "Crazy" was an immediate sensation. Though at heart a soulful song, "Crazy" sets Seal apart from traditional R&B artists with its pulsing back beat and detached, otherworldly vocal. The unique sound and memorable hook ("But we're never gonna survive unless we get a little crazy") made "Crazy" an international hit; the single reached the Top 15 in the United Kingdom and the Top 10 in the United States. Seal also became somewhat of a visual icon on MTV, as the singer's lanky six-foot-four-inch frame, dreadlocks, and distinctive facial scars from a childhood skin ailment made him an instantly recognizable figure, particularly cast against the stark background of the promotional video for "Crazy." The success of "Crazy" spurred sales of Seal to more than 3.5 million copies worldwide.

Seal's debut earned him the respect of critics as well as members of the rock elite. In 1993 he appeared on Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix, covering Hendrix's "Manic Depression" along with British guitar legend Jeff Beck. Seal also appeared as a vocalist on folk icon Joni Mitchell's album Turbulent Indigo (1995).

Seal's much-anticipated second album, also self-titled, was even more successful than its predecessor. At first, the album was a slow mover, with the single "Prayer for the Dying" barely denting the Top 40. "Prayer for the Dying" features Seal contemplating various forms of death ("Fearless people / Careless needle / Harsh words spoken / And lives are broken / Forceful ageing / Help me I'm fading / Heaven's waiting"); the song's morbid subject matter, coupled with the lack of a big chorus in the fashion of "Crazy," prevented "A Prayer for the Dying" from becoming the anticipated hit lead single. Seal (1994) did not take off until the track "Kiss from a Rose" appeared on the soundtrack to the film Batman Forever (1995). An ornate ballad with lush, classically styled strings, "Kiss from a Rose" features an impassioned Seal celebrating his romantic lover: "Baby, I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey / Ooh, the more I get of you, the stranger it feels yeah / Now that your rose is in bloom / A light hits the gloom on the grey." Seal (1994) sold 5 million copies on the strength of its hit single, which landed at number one on the pop charts and also spent twelve weeks atop the adult contemporary charts. Seal won critical plaudits for his work, earning Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Vocal Performance honors at the 1996 Grammy Awards.

Seal struck commercial gold again with a movie soundtrack when he covered Steve Miller's "Fly Like an Eagle" for the film Space Jam (1996). Seal's airy version of "Fly Like an Eagle," replete with electronic drum machines, was a Top 10 hit on the Billboard singles chart.

Seal released his third album in 1998. Human Being was a commercial disappointment, briefly appearing in the Top 20 on the album charts before quickly falling into obscurity. In the years following the release of Human Being, Seal kept a relatively low profile, appearing only as a guest vocalist on other artists' albums, including Santana's Shaman (2002).

Though his recorded output was meager by most standards, Seal nevertheless developed into one of the most groundbreaking artists of the 1990s, offering a unique and forward-looking spin on the time-honored R&B genre.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Seal (Sire, 1991); Seal (Sire, 1994); Human Being (Warner Bros., 1998). Soundtracks: Batman Forever (1995). Soundtrack: Space Jam (1996).

scott tribble

SEAL

Ancient seal devices were frequently used throughout the ancient Near East. The Israelites were acquainted with the usage of seals by other peoples (Gn 41.42; Est3.12; Dn 6.17), but they also used them from earliest times, the first recorded incident being preserved in the clan saga of Judah where the patriarch surrendered his signet and cord, probably a cylinder seal, to Tamar (Gn 38.18). Probably every free citizen owned a seal bearing his name and emblem.

The seal was used to authenticate or ratify legal, commercial, or official documents. In an age when the art of writing was in the hands of a special class of scribes, such documents had to be certified. The seal established rights and fixed responsibility. A Mesopotamian could simply roll his cylinder seal across a clay tablet, thereby authenticating its contents. If his seal depicted his gods, he would also be placing the document under their protection. In areas where papyrus or leather was used as writing material, the owner could impress his stamp seal into the lump of clay that had been pressed on the string holding the rolled or folded document, or he could use ink and stamp the document itself. Thus Jezebel "wrote letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his ring" (1 Kgs 21.8), Jeremiah sealed the deed for the field he bought from Hanamel (Jer 32.10, 44), and Isaiah had a cylinder seal made for his future son (Is 8.1–2).

Besides authenticating a document, the seal often was used as a means of security. Thus sealed documents could be opened only by authorized persons. Closed doors were sealed by stretching a rope over the stone blocking the entrance and then impressing a seal into the lump of wax or clay affixed to the rope. Isaiah, for example, entrusted a sealed oracle to his disciples (Is 8.16). Only the proper person might open the scroll sealed with seven seals in Rv 5.2, 5, 9. The lion's den was sealed shut

to keep unauthorized persons out in Dn 6.17, and the tomb of Christ was sealed to prevent the disciples from stealing the body (Mt 27.66).

Finally, in some areas, seals, especially scarab seals, lost all significance and were worn by women and children as decorative amulets. On the other hand, the mere possession of a seal could be regarded as a badge of delegated authority. Examples are found in Gn 41.42; Est3.10; and 1 Mc 6.15. The word for seal was used frequently in the Bible in a metaphorical sense, the general signification being that of authentication, ratification, or security (Sg 8.6; Dt 32.34; Rom 4.11).

Bibliography: Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Bible, translated and adapted by l. hartman (New York, 1963) 2147–51. j. hastings and j. a. selbia, eds., Dictionary of the Bible, 5 v. (Edinburgh 1963) 892–893. o. tufnell, Interpreters' Dictionary of the Bible, 4 v. (Nashville 1962) 4:254–259. a. g. barrois, Manuel d'archéologie biblique v.2 (Paris 1953). d. diringer, Le iscrizioni antico-ebraiche palestinesi (Florence 1934); "The Royal Jar-Handle Stamps of Ancient Judah," The Biblical Archaeologist (New Haven 1938) 12 (1949) 70–86. p. w. lapp, "Late Royal Seals from Judah," The Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 158 (1960) 11–22.

[t. h. weber]