Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner (born 2 October 1951), known professionally as Sting, is an English musician, songwriter and actor. He was the lead vocalist, principal songwriter and bassist for the rock band the Police (1977–1984, 2007–2008). He began a solo career in 1985, after leaving the Police, and has included elements of rock, jazz, reggae, classical, new-age, and worldbeat in his music.
Sting has sold a combined total of more than 100 million records as a solo artist and as a member of the Police. He has received three Brit Awards, including Best British Male Artist in 1994 and Outstanding Contribution to Music in 2002; a Golden Globe; an Emmy; and four Academy Award nominations. As a solo musician and as a member of the Police, Sting has received 17 Grammy Awards. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Police in 2003. Sting has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; the Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors; a CBE from Queen Elizabeth II for services to music; Kennedy Center Honors; and the Polar Music Prize. In May 2023, he was made an Ivor Novello Fellow.
Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner was born at Sir G B Hunter Memorial Hospital in Wallsend, Northumberland, England, on 2 October 1951, the eldest of four children of Audrey (née Cowell), a hairdresser, and Ernest Matthew Sumner, a milkman and former fitter at an engineering works. He grew up near Wallsend's shipyards, which made an impression on him. As a child, he was inspired to leave the shipyards and seek a more glamorous life by the Queen Mother waving at him from a Rolls-Royce. He helped his father deliver milk and by ten was "obsessed" with an old Spanish guitar left by an emigrating friend of his father.
Sting attended St Cuthbert's Grammar School in Newcastle upon Tyne. He visited nightclubs such as Club A'Gogo to see Cream and Manfred Mann, who influenced his music. He learned to play bass by speeding the playing of records to 78 rpm so he "could hear the bass lines more clearly". After leaving school in 1969, he enrolled at the University of Warwick in Coventry, but left after a term. After working as a bus conductor, building labourer, and tax officer, he attended the Northern Counties College of Education (now Northumbria University) and qualified as a teacher in 1973. He taught at St Paul's First School in Cramlington for two years.
Sting performed jazz in the evenings, at weekends, and during breaks from college and teaching, playing with the Phoenix Jazzmen, Newcastle Big Band and Last Exit. He gained his nickname during his time with the Phoenix Jazzmen, when bandleader Gordon Solomon remarked that Sumner's habitual black-and-yellow striped jumper made him look like a wasp. In the 1985 documentary Bring On the Night a journalist called him Gordon, to which he replied, "My children call me Sting, my mother calls me Sting, who is this Gordon character?" In 2011, he told Time "I was never called Gordon. You could shout 'Gordon' in the street and I would just move out of your way". Despite this, he chose not to legally change his name to "Sting".
1977–1984: The Police and early solo work
In January 1977, Sting joined Stewart Copeland and Henry Padovani (soon replaced by Andy Summers) to form the Police, becoming the band's lead singer, bass player, and primary songwriter. From 1978 to 1983, the Police had five UK chart-topping albums, won six Grammy Awards and won 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 in 1983. It included their most successful song, "Every Breath You Take", written by Sting.
According to Sting, appearing in the documentary Last Play at Shea, he decided to leave the Police while onstage during a concert of 18 August 1983 at Shea Stadium in New York City because he felt that playing that venue was "[Mount] Everest". While never formally breaking up, after Synchronicity, the group agreed to concentrate on solo projects. As the years went by, the band members, especially Sting, dismissed the possibility of reforming. In 2007, the band did reform temporarily for the purpose of undertaking a reunion tour.
Four of the band's five studio albums appeared on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and two of the band's songs, "Every Breath You Take" and "Roxanne", each written by Sting, appeared on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In addition, "Every Breath You Take" and "Roxanne" were among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. In 2003, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They were also included in Rolling Stone and VH1's lists of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".
In 1978, Sting collaborated with members of Hawkwind and Gong as the Radio Actors on the one-off single "Nuclear Waste". In September 1981, Sting made his first live solo appearances, performing on all four nights of the fourth Amnesty International benefit The Secret Policeman's Other Ball in London's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, 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, Robin Gibb, Cliff Richard, Phil Collins, Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, all of whom (except Beck and Gibb) later performed at Live Aid. In 1982 he released a solo single, "Spread a Little Happiness" from the film of the Dennis Potter television play Brimstone and Treacle. The song was a reinterpretation of the 1920s musical Mr. Cinders by Vivian Ellis and a Top 20 hit in the UK.
Sting's 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 latter of which was based on a theme from the Lieutenant Kijé Suite. Within a year, the album reached Triple Platinum. The album received Grammy nominations for Album of the Year, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, Best Jazz Instrumental Performance and Best Engineered Recording.
In November 1984, Sting was part of Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?", which raised money for famine victims in Ethiopia. Released in June 1985, Sting sang the line "I Want My MTV" on "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits. 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 provided spoken vocals for the Miles Davis album You're Under Arrest, taking the role of a French-speaking police officer. 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 1985 film Bring On the Night, directed by Michael Apted, documented the formation of his solo band and its first concert in France.
Sting released ...Nothing Like the Sun in 1987, including singles, "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 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 number 90 and his Police album Synchronicity was ranked number 17 on Rolling Stone's 100 greatest albums of the 1980s.