Sting

Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner CBE (born 2 October 1951), known as Sting, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor. He was the frontman, songwriter and bassist for new wave rock band the Police from 1977 to 1984. He launched a solo career in 1985 and has included elements of rock, jazz, reggae, classical, new-age, and worldbeat in his music.[4]

As a solo musician and a member of the Police, Sting has received 17 Grammy Awards: he won Song of the Year for "Every Breath You Take", three Brit Awards, including Best British Male Artist in 1994 and Outstanding Contribution in 2002, a Golden Globe, an Emmy and four nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. In 2019, he received a BMI Award for "Every Breath You Take" becoming the most-played song in radio history.[5] In 2002, Sting received the Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors and was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Police in 2003. In 2000, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for recording. In 2003, Sting received a CBE from Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for services to music. He was made a Kennedy Center Honoree at the White House in 2014 and was awarded the Polar Music Prize in 2017.[6]

With the Police, Sting became one of the world's best-selling music artists. Solo and with the Police combined, he has sold over 100 million records.[7] In 2006, Paste ranked him 62nd of the 100 best living songwriters.[8] He was 63rd of VH1's 100 greatest artists of rock,[9] and 80th of Q magazine's 100 greatest musical stars of the 20th century.[10] He has collaborated with other musicians on songs such as "Money for Nothing" with Dire Straits, "Rise & Fall" with Craig David, "All for Love" with Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart, "You Will Be My Ain True Love" with Alison Krauss, and introduced the North African music genre raï to Western audiences through the hit song "Desert Rose" with Cheb Mami. In 2018, he released the album 44/876, a collaboration with Jamaican musician Shaggy, which won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album in 2019.

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Sting

Main article: Sting discography

See also: The Police discography and List of songs recorded by the Police

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)

57th & 9th (2016)

44/876 (2018) (with Shaggy)

My Songs (2019)

The Bridge (2021)[117][118]

Sting has also ventured into acting. Film, television and radio roles include:[176]

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 (1979) – Just Like Eddie

The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (1980) – Leader of the Blow Waves. The footage was cut but it later reappeared in the DVD version and in the documentary The Filth and the Fury (2000).

Artemis 81 (1981) – The angel Helith (BBC TV film)

Brimstone and Treacle (1982) – Martin Taylor, a drifter

Dune (1984) – Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen

Titus Groan (1984) – Steerpike (BBC Radio 4 broadcast based on the Mervyn Peake novel)

Gormenghast (1984) – Steerpike (BBC Radio 4 broadcast based on the Mervyn Peake novel)

Plenty (1985) – Mick, a black-marketeer

The Bride (1985) – Baron Frankenstein

Walking to New Orleans (1985) – Busker, singing Moon Over Bourbon Street.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) – a "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.

Kaamelott: The First Chapter (2021) – Horsa

Urgh! A Music War (1982)

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)

2012: Time for Change (2011)

The Michael J. Fox Show (2013) (singing "August Wind" from The Last Ship)

20 Feet from Stardom (2013)

Zoolander 2 (2016)

Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics (2020)

Only Murders in the Building (2021)

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. In 2018, Sting voiced the narrator of Where the Water Tastes Like Wine.[177][178]