Love Is Stronger than Pride Album: Stronger Than Pride (1988) Written by Andrew Hale / Helen Adu / Stuart Matthewman.

When Sade Adu sings this song, there is a lot of pain. Not the pain of lost love, but the pain that she cannot express love freely to whom she has affection for. That’s when love is so strong. Your ego diminishes, you face all fear and swallow your pride, and you express those three words even if it means letting go. Love is uncontrollable, but you cannot force someone to love you back. In this life, we are all born strangers. It takes time, effort, and devotion to get to know someone and appreciate every aspect of their being and to experience love and friendship with them. And it can be especially difficult if we have different paths and expectations.  

When it comes to the power of love, we become spirited, free, and we try to become the best we can be for the other. However, it only heals ourselves. We learn self-love in the process of seeking love outside of us. And sometimes the unconditional love within will eventually overflow so much, it will begin to suffocate you, that it will need to be shared and expressed to the other. But how can we continue to share it if it can’t be reciprocated by the other? We cannot hate, seek revenge, or talk smack about the other; it’ll just make the experience worse. It would just leave you miserable. And one can’t sit and wait forever for the one that can never love them back the way they want to share and experience love. So we surrender, wish for all the best, and express our feeling through gratitude; through song, words, and through visual art. We can still love at a distance without anything in return. We spread the love to the whole world entirely. This is the meaning of true unconditional love. This is what makes love stronger than pride.