Sting (musician)

"Gordon Sumner" redirects here. For the Australian rules footballer, see Gordon Sumner (footballer).

Sting CBE
Sting with his 2014 Kennedy Center Honorees Medallion, December 2014
Born	Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner (1951-10-02) 2 October 1951 Wallsend, Northumberland, England
Other names	Sting
Occupation(s)	Musician, singer-songwriter, record producer, activist, actor, philanthropist
Spouses	Frances Tomelty ​ ​ (m. 1976⁠–⁠1984)​ Trudie Styler ​ (m. 1992)​
Children	Joe Sumner Kate Sumner Mickey Sumner Jake Sumner Eliot Sumner Giacomo Sumner
Musical career
Genres	Rock, pop, new wave, jazz, new-age, blue-eyed soul, reggae, post-punk
Instrument(s)	Vocals, bass guitar, keyboard, guitar, lute, harmonica, saxophone, oboe, double bass, bass pedals, drum machine
Years active	1971–present
Labels	A&M, Deutsche Grammophon, Universal Music Group
Website	sting.com

Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner CBE (born 2 October 1951), known on stage as Sting, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist, actor and philanthropist. He is principal songwriter, lead singer, and bassist for the new wave rock band The Police, and for his solo career.

Sting has included rock, jazz, reggae, classical, new-age, and worldbeat in his music. As a solo musician and a member of The Police, he received 16 Grammy Awards, his first for best rock instrumental in 1980, three Brit Awards, including Best British Male in 1994 and Outstanding Contribution in 2002, a Golden Globe award, an Emmy Award, and Oscar nominations for Best Original Song. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Police in 2003. In 2000, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for recording.

As a member of The Police, Sting became one of the world's best-selling music artists. Solo and as a member of The Police, Sting sold 100 million records. In 2006, Paste ranked him 62nd of the 100 best living songwriters. He was 63rd of VH1's 100 greatest artists of rock, and 80th of Q magazine's 100 greatest musical stars of 20th century. He has collaborated with other musicians, including "Rise & Fall" with Craig David, "All for Love", with Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart, and introduced the North African musical Raï to Western audiences by his international hit "Desert Rose" with Cheb Mami.

Early life

Sting was born in Wallsend, North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England, on 2 October 1951, the eldest of four children born to Audrey (née Cowell), a hairdresser, and Ernest Matthew Sumner, a milkman and engineer. He grew up near Wallsend's shipyards, which made an impression on him. He helped his father deliver milk and by ten was "obsessed" with an old Spanish guitar left by an emigrating friend of his father.

He attended St. Cuthbert's Grammar School in Newcastle upon Tyne. He visited nightclubs such as Club A Go-Go to see Cream and Manfred Mann, who influenced his own music. After jobs as a bus conductor, building labourer and a tax officer, he attended Northern Counties College of Education, from 1971 to 1974 and qualified as a teacher. He taught at St Paul's First School in Cramlington for two years.

Sting performed jazz in the evening, weekends, and during breaks from college and teaching. He played with the Phoenix Jazzmen, Newcastle Big Band, and Last Exit. He gained his nickname after wearing a black and yellow sweater with hooped stripes with the Phoenix Jazzmen. Bandleader Gordon Solomon thought the looked like a bee, which prompted the name "Sting". In the 1985 documentary Bring on the Night a journalist called him Gordon and replied: "My children call me Sting, my mother calls me Sting, who is this Gordon character?" In Time in 2011 he said: "I was never called Gordon. You could shout 'Gordon' in the street and I would just move out of your way."

Musical career

The Police

Main article: The Police

In January 1977, Sting moved from Newcastle to London and joined Stewart Copeland and Henry Padovani (who was soon replaced by Andy Summers) to form the The Police. From 1978 to 1983 they had five chart-topping albums, won six Grammy Awards, and two Brit Awards (for Best British Group, and for Outstanding Contribution to Music). Their initial sound was punk inspired, but they switched to reggae rock and minimalist pop. Their final album, Synchronicity, was nominated for five Grammy Awards including Album of the Year. It included their most successful song, "Every Breath You Take", written by Sting, in 1983. Sting, who appeared in the documentary Last Play at Shea, decided to leave during a concert at Shea Stadium on 18 August 1983, because playing the venue was "Everest". While never formally breaking up, after Synchronicity the group concentrated on solo projects and then dismissed the possibility of reforming. In 2007, however, the band reformed for world tour.

Early solo work

In September 1981, Sting made his first live solo appearance, on all four nights of the fourth Amnesty International benefit The Secret Policeman's Other Ball in London's Drury Lane theatre at the invitation of producer Martin Lewis. He performed solo versions of "Roxanne" and "Message in a Bottle". He also led an all-star band (dubbed "The Secret Police") on his own arrangement of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released". The band and chorus included Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Phil Collins, Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, all of whom (except Beck) later worked on Live Aid. His performances were in the album and movie of the show. The Secret Policeman's Other Ball began his growing involvement in political and social causes. In 1982 he made a solo single, "Spread a Little Happiness" from the film of the Dennis Potter television play Brimstone and Treacle. The song was a re-interpretation of the 1920s musical Mr Cinders by Vivian Ellis, and a Top 20 hit in the UK.

1980s

His first solo album, 1985's The Dream of the Blue Turtles, featured jazz musicians including Kenny Kirkland, Darryl Jones, Omar Hakim and Branford Marsalis. It included the hit singles "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" (backed with the non-LP song "Another Day"), "Fortress Around Your Heart", "Love Is the Seventh Wave", and "Russians", the last based on a theme from the Lieutenant Kijé Suite. Within a year, the album reached Triple Platinum. This album received Grammy nominations for Album of the Year, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, and Best Engineered Recording.

Sting performing in 1985

Sting sang the line "I Want My MTV" on "Money for Nothing", a 1985 hit by Dire Straits. In November 1984, he was part of Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?", which raised money for famine victims in Ethiopia. In July 1985, Sting performed Police hits at the Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium in London. He also joined Dire Straits in "Money for Nothing", and he sang two duets with Phil Collins. In 1985, Sting sang on the Miles Davis album You're Under Arrest. He also sang backing vocals on Arcadia's single "The Promise", on two songs from Phil Collins' album No Jacket Required, and contributed "Mack the Knife" to the Hal Willner-produced tribute album Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill. In September 1985, he performed "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" at the 1985 MTV Video Music Awards at the Radio City Music Hall in New York. The 1986 film Bring on the Night, directed by Michael Apted, documented the formation of his solo band and its first concert in France.

Sting and Bono at the Conspiracy of Hope concert in New Jersey, 1986

Sting made ...Nothing Like the Sun in 1987, including "We'll Be Together", "Fragile", "Englishman in New York", and "Be Still My Beating Heart", dedicated to his mother, who had recently died. It went Double Platinum. "The Secret Marriage" from this album was adapted from a Hanns Eisler, and "Englishman In New York" was about Quentin Crisp. The album's title is from William Shakespeare's Sonnet 130. The album won Best British Album at the 1988 Brit Awards and in 1989 received three Grammy nominations including his second consecutive nomination for Album of the Year. "Be Still My Beating Heart" earned nominations for Song of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. In 1989, ...Nothing Like the Sun was ranked numbert 90 and his Police album Synchronicity was ranked 17 of Rolling Stone's 100 greatest albums of the 1980s.

In February 1988 he made Nada como el sol, five songs from Sun he sang in Spanish and Portuguese. In 1987 jazz arranger Gil Evans placed him ting in a big band setting for a live album of Sting's songs, and on Frank Zappa's 1988 Broadway the Hard Way he performed an arrangement of "Murder By Numbers", set to "Stolen Moments" by Oliver Nelson, and "dedicated" to evangelist Jimmy Swaggart. In October 1988 he recorded a version of Igor Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale with the London Sinfonietta conducted by Kent Nagano. It featured Vanessa Redgrave, Sir Ian McKellen and Sting as the soldier.

1990s

His 1991 album, The Soul Cages was dedicated to his father, whjo had died. It included "All This Time", and the Grammy-winning title track. The album went Platinum. The following year, he married Trudie Styler and was awarded an honorary doctorate in music from Northumbria University. In 1991, he appeared on Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin. He performed "Come Down in Time" for the album, which also features other popular artists and their renditions of John/Taupin songs.

Ten Summoner's Tales peaked at two in the UK and US album charts in 1993, and went triple platinum in just over a year. The album was recorded at his Elizabethan country home, [[Lake House. Ten Summoner's Tales was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 1993 and for the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1994. The title is a wordplay on his surname, Sumner, and The Summoner's Tale, one of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. Hit singles on the album include "Fields of Gold" and "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You", the latter earning his second award for best male pop singer at the 36th Grammy Awards.

In May 1993, he covered his own Police song from the Ghost in the Machine album, "Demolition Man", for the Demolition Man film. With Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart, he performed "All for Love" for the film The Three Musketeers. The song stayed at the top of the U.S. charts for five weeks and went platinum; it is Sting's only song from his post-Police career to top the U.S. charts. In February, he won two Grammy Awards and was nominated for three more. The Berklee College of Music awarded him his second honorary doctorate of music in May. In November, he released a compilation called Fields of Gold: The Best of Sting, which was certified Double Platinum. That year, he sang with Vanessa Williams on "Sister Moon", appeared on her album The Sweetest Days. At the 1994 Brit Awards in London, he was Best British Male.

His 1996 album, Mercury Falling debuted strongly with the single "Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot", but dropped from the charts. He reached the Top 40 with two singles the same year with "You Still Touch Me" (June) and "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying" (December), which became a country music hit in 1997 in a version with Toby Keith. Sting recorded music for the Disney film Kingdom of the Sun, which was reworked into The Emperor's New Groove. The film's overhauls and plot changes were documented by Sting's wife, Trudie Styler. She wrote of when Disney told him his songs would not be used.

Also in 1996, he sang for the Tina Turner single "On Silent Wings" as a part of her Wildest Dreams album. In the same year, his performance with the Brazilian composer/artist Tom Jobim in "How Insensitive" was in the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Rio produced by the Red Hot Organization. Sting cooperated with Greek singer George Dalaras in a concert in Athens. "Moonlight", a rare jazz performance by Sting for the 1995 remake of Sabrina, written by Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman and John Williams, was nominated for a 1997 Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture or Television. On 4 September 1997, Sting performed "I'll Be Missing You" with Puff Daddy at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards in tribute to Notorious B.I.G.. On 15 September 1997, Sting appeared at the Music for Montserrat concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London, performing alongside artists such as Phil Collins, Mark Knopfler, Elton John, Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney.

2000s

Sting on stage in January 2000

The Emperor's New Groove soundtrack was released with complete songs from the previous version of the film, which included Rascal Flatts and Shawn Colvin. The final single used to promote the film was "My Funny Friend and Me". Sting's September 1999 album Brand New Day included the Top 40 hits "Brand New Day" and "Desert Rose". The album went Triple Platinum by January 2001. In 2000, he won Grammy Awards for Brand New Day and the song of the same name. At the awards ceremony, he performed "Desert Rose" with his collaborator on the album version, Cheb Mami.

In February 2001, he won another Grammy for "She Walks This Earth (Soberana Rosa)" on A Love Affair: The Music Of Ivan Lins. His "After the Rain Has Fallen" made it into the Top 40. His next project was a live album at his villa in Figline Valdarno, released as a CD and DVD as well as being broadcast on the internet. The CD and DVD were to be entitled On Such a Night and intended to feature re-workings of Sting favourites such as "Roxanne" and "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free." The concert, scheduled for 11 September 2001, was altered due to the terrorist attacks in America that day. The webcast shut after one song (a reworked version of "Fragile"), after which Sting let the audience decide whether to continue the show. They decided to go ahead and the album and DVD appeared in November as ...All This Time, dedicated "to all those who lost their lives on that day". He performed "Fragile" with Yo-Yo Ma and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir during the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, US.

In 2002, he won a Golden Globe Award for "Until..." from the film Kate and Leopold. Written and performed by him, "Until..." was nominated for Academy Award for Best Song. At the 2002 Brit Awards in February, Sting received the prize for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In June he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In the Queen's Birthday Honours 2003 Sting was made a Commander of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire For services to the Music Industry. At the 54th Primetime Emmy Awards in September, Sting won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance In A Variety Or Music Program, for his A&E special, Sting in Tuscany... All This Time.

In 2003, Sting released Sacred Love, a studio album featuring collaborations with hip-hop artist Mary J. Blige and sitar performer Anoushka Shankar. He and Blige won a Grammy for their duet, "Whenever I Say Your Name". The song is based on Johann Sebastian Bach’s Praeambulum 1 C-Major (BWV 924) from the Klavierbuechlein fuer Wilhelm Friedemann Bach though Sting said little about this adaptation. The album did not have the hit singles like his previous releases.

His autobiography Broken Music was published in October. He embarked on a Sacred Love tour in 2004 with performances by Annie Lennox. Sting went on the Broken Music tour, touring smaller venues, with a four-piece band, starting in Los Angeles on 28 March 2005 and ending on 14 May 2005. Sting was on the 2005 Monkey Business CD by hip-hop group The Black Eyed Peas, singing on "Union", which samples his Englishman in New York. Continuing with Live Aid, he appeared at Live 8 at Hyde Park, London in July 2005.

During 2006, Sting was on the Gregg Kofi Brown album, with "Lullaby to an anxious child" produced and arranged by the Lino Nicolosi and Pino Nicolos (Nicolosi productions).

Sting with the Police at Madison Square Garden, New York, 1 August 2007

In October 2006, he released an album, to mixed reviews, entitled Songs from the Labyrinth featuring the music of John Dowland (an Elizabethan-era composer) and accompaniment from Bosnian lute player Edin Karamazov. Sting’s interpretation of this English Renaissance composer and his cooperation with Edin Karamazov brought recognition in classical music. As promotion of this album, he appeared on the fifth episode of Studio 60 to perform a segment of Dowland's "Come Again" as well as his own "Fields of Gold" in arrangement for voice and two archlutes.

On 11 February 2007, he reunited with Police to open the 2007 Grammy Awards, singing Roxanne, and announced the Police Reunion Tour, the first concert of which was in Vancouver on 28 May 2007 for 22,000 fans. The Police toured for more than a year, beginning with North America and crossing to Europe, South America, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Tickets for the British tour sold out within 30 minutes, the band playing two nights at Twickenham Stadium, southwest London on 8 and 9 September 2007. The last concert was at Madison Square Garden on 7 August 2008, during which his three daughters appeared with him. Toronto documentary producer Vanessa Dylyn, who was producing a film called The Musical Brain, featuring neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, approached Sting about the film. Sting was interested in having his brain scanned by while different music was played. "Brand New Day" was the final song of the night for the Neighborhood Ball, one of ten inaugural balls honouring President Barack Obama on Inauguration Day, 20 January 2009. Sting was joined by Stevie Wonder on harmonica.

Sting entered the studio in early February 2009 to begin work on a new album If on a Winter's Night..., released on October 2009. Initial reviews by fans that had access to early promotional copies were mixed, and some questioned Sting's artistic direction with this album.

In 2009, Sting appeared at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th anniversary concert, playing "Higher Ground" and "Roxanne" with Stevie Wonder. Sting himself was inducted in 2003, as a member of The Police.

In October 2009, Sting played a concert in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, for an arts and cultural festival. Despite claiming he thought the concert was sponsored by UNICEF, he faced criticism in the press for receiving a payment of between one and two million pounds from Uzbek president Islam Karimov for the performance. Karimov is accused by the UN and Amnesty of human rights abuses and UNICEF stated they had no connection with the event.

2010s

Sting performing in Budapest, 30 June 2011

In 2010–2011, Sting continued his Symphonicity Tour, touring South Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South America and Europe. In the second half of 2011, Sting began his Back to Bass Tour, which would continue (with periodic breaks) through 2013.

In 2011, Time magazine named Sting one of the 100 most influential people in the world. On 26 April he performed "Every Breath You Take", "Roxanne" and "Desert Rose" at the Time 100 Gala in New York City.

Sting recorded a song called "Power's Out" with Nicole Scherzinger. The song, originally recorded in 2007, was to have been included on Scherzinger's shelved album Her Name is Nicole. The song was released on Scherzinger's 2011 debut album Killer Love.

Sting recorded a new version of the song "Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot" as a duet with Glee actor/singer Matthew Morrison, which appears on Morrison's 2011 eponymous debut album.

On 15 September 2011, Sting performed "Fragile" at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, to honour the memory of his friend, financier-philanthropist Herman Sandler, who died in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

For several years, Sting worked on a musical, The Last Ship, inspired by Sting's own childhood experiences and the shipbuilding industry in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear. In 2013, the musical had a staged reading. The Last Ship tells a story about the demise of the British shipbuilding industry in 1980s Newcastle, and debuted in Chicago in June 2014 before transferring to Broadway in the Autumn. Sting's eleventh studio album, titled The Last Ship and inspired by the play, was released on 24 September 2013.

In February 2014, Sting embarked on a joint concert tour titled On Stage Together with American musician Paul Simon, playing 21 concerts in North America. The tour will continue in early 2015, with ten shows in Australia and New Zealand, and 23 in Europe.

Activism

Sting's first involvement in the human rights cause came in September 1981 when he was invited by producer Martin Lewis to participate in the fourth Amnesty International gala The Secret Policeman's Other Ball following the example set at the 1979 show by Pete Townshend. Sting performed two of his Police compositions as a soloist – "Roxanne" and "Message in a Bottle"' – appearing on all four nights of the show at the Theatre Royal in London. Sting also led an impromptu super-group of other musicians (dubbed The Secret Police) performing at the show including Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Phil Collins, Donovan, Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in the show's grand finale – Sting's own reggae-tinged arrangement of Bob Dylan's I Shall Be Released. The event was the first time that Sting had worked with Geldof, Collins and Ure – an association that developed further with 1984's Band Aid and 1985's Live Aid. His association with Amnesty continued throughout the 1980s and beyond and he was a participant in many of Amnesty's Human rights concerts.

In June 1986, Sting reunited with the Police for the last three shows of Amnesty's six-date A Conspiracy of Hope concerts of the US. The day after the final concert, he was interviewed on NBC's Today Show about the origins of his support for Amnesty International and he stated: "I've been a member of Amnesty and a support member for five years, due to an entertainment event called The Secret Policeman's Ball and before that I did not know about Amnesty, I did not know about its work, I did not know about torture in the world."

In 1988 he joined a team of other major musicians – including Peter Gabriel and Bruce Springsteen – assembled under the banner of Amnesty International for the six-week Human Rights Now! world tour commemorating the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Sting with Chief Raoni in Paris, in April 1989

Sting had first shown his interest in social and political issues in his 1980 Police song "Driven to Tears," an angry indictment of apathy in the face of world hunger. Sting took part in Bob Geldof's "Feed The World" project in December 1984. Sting sang on "Do They Know It's Christmas?" – the single recorded by Geldof's super-group "Band Aid" that eventually led to the Live Aid concert in July 1985 at Wembley Stadium in London, in which Sting also took part, performing with Phil Collins, and Dire Straits.

In 1988, he released the single "They Dance Alone" which chronicled the plight of the mothers, wives and daughters of the "disappeared", the political opponents of the regime killed by the Pinochet government in Chile. Unable to publicly voice their grievances to the government about their missing loved ones, for fear that they would "go missing" too, the women of Chile would pin photos of their "disappeared" relatives on their clothing, and dance in silent outrage against the government in public places.

With his wife Trudie Styler and Raoni Metuktire, a Kayapó Indian leader in Brazil, Sting founded the Rainforest Foundation Fund to help save the rainforests and protect the rights of the indigenous peoples living there. In 1989 he flew to the Altamira Gathering to give a press conference offering his support while promoting his charity. His support for these causes continues to this day, and includes an annual benefit concert held at New York's Carnegie Hall with Billy Joel, Elton John, James Taylor and other music superstars. A species of Colombian tree frog, Dendropsophus stingi, was named after him in recognition of his "commitment and efforts to save the rain forest".

On 15 September 1997, Sting joined Sir Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Sir Elton John, Phil Collins and Mark Knopfler at London's Royal Albert Hall for Music for Montserrat, a benefit concert for the Caribbean island that had recently been devastated by an eruption from a volcano. Sting and his wife Trudie Styler were awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience award in Sherborn, Massachusetts on 30 June 2000. Singer/song writer, documentary film producers for their commitment to the environment through the establishment of the Rainforest Foundation; to human rights in China through the documentary film on Tiananmen Square; and to peace and social justice through the powerful gift of song.

In September 2001, Sting also took part in the post-9/11 rock telethon America: A Tribute to Heroes singing "Fragile" to help raise money for the families of the victims of terror attacks in the US.

In February 2005, Sting performed at the Leeuwin Estate Concert Series in Western Australia, with the concert raising $4 million for the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami relief efforts. On 2 July 2005, Sting performed a complete set at the Live 8 concert at Hyde Park, London, the follow-up to 1985's Live Aid concert.

In 2007, Sting joined Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland and played the closing set at the Live Earth concert at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Joined by John Mayer and Kanye West, Sting and the Police fittingly ended the show singing "Message in a Bottle," as the event was dubbed "The SOS Concert."

In 2008 Sting contributed to an album called Songs for Tibet, to support Tibet and the current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso.

On 22 January 2010, Sting performed "Driven to Tears" during the global telethon Hope for Haiti Now. On 25 April 2010, he performed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. during the 40th anniversary celebration of Earth Day.

Sting is a patron of the Elton John AIDS Foundation. In 2010 he became a Patron of the poverty alleviation and beekeeping charity Bees for Development.

In 2011, Sting was among more than 30 signatories to an open letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron calling for the "immediate decriminalisation of drug possession" if a policy review shows it has failed. Sting was quoted: "Giving young people criminal records for minor drug possession serves little purpose – it is time to think of more imaginative ways of addressing drug use in our society."

On 4 July 2011, Sting cancelled a concert appearance scheduled for the Astana Day Festival in Astana, Kazakhstan. Amnesty International convinced him to cancel the appearance, due to concerns over the rights of Kazakh oil and gas workers and their families. It was later discovered that BGR Gabara "told undercover reporters from the Bureau for Investigative Journalism that it was proposing to the Kazakh officials that they generate an "online social media campaign" by Kazakh children who were upset about the cancellation".

On 2 November 2012, Sting appeared on Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together and sang a solo acoustic/rock version of "Message in a Bottle" to help raise funds for the American Red Cross in support of those affected by the storm which hit the east coast of the United States earlier that week. The show reportedly raised $23 million.

In August 2014, Sting was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.

Personal life

Sting at Madison Square Garden in New York City on 1 August 2007

Sting married actress Frances Tomelty from Northern Ireland, on 1 May 1976. Before they divorced in 1984, the couple had two children: Joseph (born 23 November 1976) and Fuchsia Katherine (a.k.a. "Kate", born 17 April 1982). In 1980, Sting became a tax exile and moved to Galway in Ireland. In 1982, shortly after the birth of his second child, Sting separated from Tomelty and began living with actress (and later film producer) Trudie Styler. The couple eventually married on 22 August 1992 in an 11th-century chapel in Wiltshire, south-west England. Sting and Styler have four children: Brigitte Michael (a.k.a. "Mickey", born 19 January 1984), Jake (born 24 May 1985), Eliot Pauline (nicknamed "Coco", born 30 July 1990), and Giacomo Luke (born 17 December 1995). Coco is the current singer and founder of the London based group I Blame Coco. Giacomo Luke is the inspiration behind the name of Kentucky Derby-winning horse Giacomo.

Sting has said that his children will not inherit his £180m fortune, fearing that his riches are "albatrosses round their necks", and stating that "there won't be much money left because we are spending it." The Sunday Times Rich List of 2011 estimated Sting to be one of the 10 wealthiest people in the British music industry.

Both of Sting's parents died from cancer in the 1980s (his mother in 1986 and his father in 1987). He did not, however, attend either funeral stating that the media circus would be disrespectful to his parents.

In 1995, Sting prepared for a court appearance against his former accountant who had misappropriated several million pounds of his money. Sting owns several homes worldwide, including Elizabethan manor house Lake House and its 60 acre country estate near Salisbury, Wiltshire; a country cottage in the Lake District; a New York City flat; a beach house in Malibu; a 600-acre (2.4 km²) estate in Tuscany, Italy; and two properties in London: a flat on the Mall, and an 18th-century terrace house in Highgate.

Garry Kasparov and Sting in Times Square, New York, 2000

To keep physically fit, for years Sting ran five miles (8 km) a day and performed aerobics. He participated in running races at Parliament Hill and charity runs similar to the British 10K. Around 1990 he met Danny Paradise who introduced him to yoga, and he later began practising regularly. His practice consisted primarily of an Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga series, though he now practises Tantra and Jivamukti Yoga as well. He wrote a foreword to the book Yoga Beyond Belief, written by Ganga White in 2007. In 2008 he was reported to be a practitioner of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation technique.

Sting's affinity for yoga has contributed to a longstanding rumour about his sexual prowess, including a purported ability to have eight hours of sex with Trudie Styler. The story stems from an interview with Sting and Bob Geldof. A journalist asked "how do you perform in bed?" and Geldof jokingly remarked that he was a "three-minute man" in the sack, while Sting could last for hours thanks to yoga.

An avid chess player, Sting played Garry Kasparov in an exhibition game in 2000, along with four bandmates: Dominic Miller, Jason Rebello, Chris Botti and Russ Irwin. Kasparov beat all five simultaneously within 50 minutes. Formerly eating only animals that he brought up himself, Sting now adheres to a macrobiotic diet.

In 1969, Sting read the Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake and became a passionate fan. He later bought the film rights to the books, and also named household pets, a racehorse, his publishing company, and even one of his daughters (Fuchsia) after characters from the books.

Sting is a supporter of his hometown football team Newcastle United, and in 2009, backed a Newcastle United Supporters' campaign against the controversial plan of owner Mike Ashley to sell off the naming rights to St James' Park.

When asked about his religious beliefs in a 2011 interview with Time, Sting stated: "I'm essentially agnostic. I don't have a problem with God. I have a problem with religion. I've chosen to live my life without the certainties of religious faith. I think they're dangerous. Music is something that gives my life value and spiritual solace."

In August 2013, Sting donated an undisclosed amount of money to The Friends of Tynemouth Outdoor Pool as part of a drive to regenerate the 1920s Lido situated at the southern end of Longsands Beach in Tynemouth, just a few miles from where the singer was born.

Discography

Main article: Sting discography

See also: The Police discography

The Police

• Outlandos d'Amour (1978)
• Reggatta de Blanc (1979)
• Zenyatta Mondatta (1980)
• Ghost in the Machine (1981)
• Synchronicity (1983)

Solo

• The Dream of the Blue Turtles (1985)
• ...Nothing Like the Sun (1987)
• The Soul Cages (1991)
• Ten Summoner's Tales (1993)
• Mercury Falling (1996)
• Brand New Day (1999)
• Sacred Love (2003)
• Songs from the Labyrinth (2006)
• If on a Winter's Night... (2009)
• Symphonicities (2010)
• The Last Ship (2013)

Filmography

Sting has also ventured into acting. Film and television roles include:

As actor

• Quadrophenia (1979) – The Ace Face, the King of the Mods, a.k.a. The Bell Boy in the film adaptation of The Who album
• Radio On (1980) – Just Like Eddie
• Artemis 81 (1981) – The angel Helith (BBC TV film)
• Brimstone and Treacle (1982) – Martin Taylor, a drifter
• Dune (1984) – Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen
• Titus Groan – Steerpike (BBC Radio 4 broadcasts based on the Mervyn Peake novels)
• Gormenghast (1984) – Steerpike
• Plenty (1985) – Mick, a black-marketeer
• The Bride (1985) – Baron Frankenstein
• The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) – An "heroic officer"
• Stormy Monday (1988) – Finney, a nightclub owner
• Julia and Julia (1988) – Daniel, a British gentleman
• Saturday Night Live (1991) – host, various
• The Grotesque (1995), a/k/a Gentlemen Don't Eat Poets and Grave Indiscretion – Fledge
• Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) – J.D., Eddie's father and owner of a bar

As himself

• Bring on the Night (1985)
• The Simpsons episode "Radio Bart" (1992)
• The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer Episode 5 (1995)
• The Larry Sanders Show episode "Where Is the Love?" (1996)
• Ally McBeal season four episode "Cloudy Skies, Chance of Parade" (2001)
• Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out (2006)
• Studio 60 on Sunset Strip (2006)
• Vicar of Dibley Comic Relief special (2007)
• Bee Movie (2007)
• Little Britain USA (2008) as Stomp, the lead singer of "The Cops" (playing "Fields of Gold")
• Brüno (2009)
• Still Bill (2009)
• Do It Again (2010)
• Life's Too Short (2011)
• The Michael J. Fox Show (2013)(singing "August Wind" from The Last Ship)
• 20 Feet from Stardom (2013)

Sting narrated the American premiere of the musical Yanomamo (1983), by Peter Rose and Anne Conlon, outlining problems that existed in the Amazon rainforest. This was made into a film and later broadcast as Song of the Forest. He also provided the voice of Zarm on the 1990s television show Captain Planet and the Planeteers. In 1989 he starred as Macheath (Mack the Knife) in John Dexter's Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera. Sting also appeared as himself in the video game Guitar Hero World Tour.

Theatre

Broadway

Year	Title	Notes
1982	Rock 'N Roll! The First 5,000 Years	Writer: "Message in a Bottle"
1989	3 Penny Opera	Role: Macheath
2014	The Last Ship	Music and lyrics Role: Jackie White

Bibliography

• 2009 The Words and Music of Sting, Christopher Gable, Praeger, ISBN 978-0-275-99360-3
• 2007 Lyrics by – Sting, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 978-1-84737-167-6
• 2003 Autobiography Broken Music, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-7434-5081-7
• 2005 Biography Sting and I, James Berryman, John Blake, ISBN 1-84454-107-X
• 2000 Authorised biography A Sting in the Tale, James Berryman, Mirage Publishing, ISBN 1-902578-13-9
• 1998 Biography Sting – Demolition Man, Christopher Sandford, Little, Brown and Company, ISBN 0-316-64372-6

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Sting

See also

• List of number-one hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (U.S.)
• List of number-one dance hits (United States)
• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance chart
• Mononymous persons

External links

• Official website
• Template:Dmoz
• Sting at IMDb
• Sting at the Internet Broadway Database
• Template:NNDB
• Sting discography at MusicBrainz
• Sting's 1994 Commencement Address To The Berklee College of Music
• List of Sting's touring band line-ups
• Radio interview about John Dowland songs from NPR Performance Today, 6 March 2007
• Sting Live in Minsk (video) on the Official Website of Belarus