Silky singer Sade Adu turns 50 years old today, and wouldn't you know it ... the perfect reader mail arrived this week to help commemorate the day. Take it away, Dr. Dim...

"Hey, Sean and Steve. I have an idea for a blog battle for you guys. It was an old debate two of my 80's drinking buddies and I would get into on occasion. Who is the sexier package: Whitney Houston or Sade Adu?

"Both hit the scene at roughly the same time. Whitney in 1985 and Sade in 1984. Both are black female singers. Both had a few hits (Whitney may have had more). Both eventually had issues with chemical or alcohol abuse. Only one took part in LiveAid and only one is truly sexy."

"For me, it's Sade. Hands down. No contest. But my buddies disagreed. They preferred loud, brash, flashy Whitney. I don't know how they could prefer her to the soulful, smoldering, worldly, exotic beauty of Sade."

"Sade may not have the vocal range of Whitney, but she has everything else. She has a great voice and an intelligence to her songs -- which she writes! And I always loved it when her thickly applied lipstick smeared her teeth. I would just imagine that lipstick getting ... elsewhere. Sorry, I digress."

"What has Whitney got? She was cute in those days. Young and energetic. And she could do an excellent impression of an air raid siren. Just listen to that crap cover of Dolly Parton's I Will Always
Love You. I hate that song. It's a '90s song anyway."

"I'm not sure you guys would be interested in the debate idea, but I can figure out which side you'd come down on. Sean seems like a Whitney guy (although neither Whitney nor Sade could be considered chunky but funky) and Steve would probably go for Sade."

"Anyway, the answer is Sade. Everything about her screams sexy! Whitney just screams. What do you think? Yours stuck in the 80's, Dr. Dim"

Well, Doc, no need to debate it now. You did it just fine. Everyone else agree with his conclusion?

Happy 50th birthday, Sade!