Sting (musician)
Sting, the English musician and actor born Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, once disowned his own first name on camera. In the 1985 documentary Bring On the Night, a journalist addressed him as Gordon. He answered, "My children call me Sting, my mother calls me Sting, who is this Gordon character?" In 2011 he made the same point to Time. "I was never called Gordon," he said. "You could shout 'Gordon' in the street and I would just move out of your way." Even so, he never changed his name by law.
His records, counting both his solo work and his years with the Police, have sold more than 100 million copies. His music has drawn on rock, jazz, reggae, classical, new-age and worldbeat. He has also acted in films and written a musical.
Three questions run through his story. Where did a nickname that outlasted his birth name come from? Why did he decide, in the middle of a concert, that his time with the Police was over? And what keeps pulling an artist with that much success toward jazz clubs, opera houses and benefit stages?
Sting was born at Sir G B Hunter Memorial Hospital in Wallsend, Northumberland, on the 2nd of October 1951. He was the eldest of four children. His mother, Audrey, was a hairdresser. His father, Ernest Matthew Sumner, was a milkman who had once worked as a fitter at an engineering works.
The shipyards of Wallsend stood near the family home, and they left a lasting impression on the boy. One image pushed him to look elsewhere. As a child he saw the Queen Mother wave at him from a Rolls-Royce, and it made him want a more glamorous life than the yards could offer.
By the age of ten he was helping his father deliver milk. He was also "obsessed" with an old Spanish guitar, left behind by a friend of his father's who had emigrated.
St Cuthbert's Grammar School in Newcastle upon Tyne was where he studied next. At night he visited clubs such as Club A'Gogo, where he watched Cream and Manfred Mann, and both acts shaped his music. He taught himself to sing and play at the same time by listening to records played at 78 rpm.
He left school in 1969 and enrolled at the University of Warwick in Coventry. He left after a single term. Work followed as a bus conductor, a building labourer and a tax officer. From 1971 to 1974 he attended the Northern Counties College of Education, now Northumbria University, and qualified as a teacher. He then taught for two years at St Paul's First School in Cramlington.
Music filled his evenings, weekends and college breaks. He played jazz with the Phoenix Jazzmen, the Newcastle Big Band and Last Exit. The nickname arrived during his time with the Phoenix Jazzmen. Bandleader Gordon Solomon noticed the black-and-yellow striped jumper Sumner kept wearing and remarked that it made him look like a wasp.
In 1969, the year he left school, he also read Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy. The books would stay with him for decades.
In January 1977, Sting joined Stewart Copeland and Henry Padovani to form the Police. Padovani was soon replaced by Andy Summers. Sting became the lead singer, the bass player and the main songwriter.
From 1978 to 1983, the band produced five UK chart-topping albums. They won six Grammy Awards and two Brit Awards, one for Best British Group and one for Outstanding Contribution to Music. Their early sound drew on punk. They then moved toward reggae rock and minimalist pop.
Their final album was Synchronicity. It earned five Grammy nominations in 1983, including one for Album of the Year. It also held their most successful song, "Every Breath You Take", which Sting wrote. In 2019 he received a BMI Award when that song became the most-played in radio history.
The critical record is long. Four of the band's five studio albums appeared on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums. "Every Breath You Take" and "Roxanne", both written by Sting, made Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs. Both were also among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. The Hall of Fame inducted the band in 2003.
The end came on a stage. Sting has said, in the documentary Last Play at Shea, that he decided to leave during a concert at Shea Stadium in New York City on the 18th of August 1983. Playing that venue felt to him like "Mount Everest."
The Police never formally broke up. After Synchronicity, the members agreed to focus on solo projects. Over the years they, and Sting especially, dismissed the idea of reforming.
They reformed anyway. On the 11th of February 2007 the trio opened the Grammy Awards, with Sting singing "Roxanne". The reunion tour began in Vancouver on the 28th of May 2007, before 22,000 fans. It ran for more than a year, crossing North America, Europe, South America, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Tickets for the British dates sold out within 30 minutes, and the band played Twickenham Stadium in southwest London on the 8th and the 9th of September 2007.
In 1982, a year before the Shea Stadium decision, Sting released a solo single called "Spread a Little Happiness". It came from the film of Dennis Potter's television play Brimstone and Treacle. The song reworked a number from Vivian Ellis's 1920s musical Mr. Cinders, and it reached the UK Top 20.
His first solo album, The Dream of the Blue Turtles, arrived in 1985. Jazz players filled the band, among them Kenny Kirkland, Darryl Jones, Omar Hakim and Branford Marsalis. The singles included "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free", "Fortress Around Your Heart", "Love Is the Seventh Wave" and "Russians". "Russians" borrowed a theme from the Lieutenant Kijé Suite. The album went Triple Platinum within a year and drew Grammy nominations for Album of the Year, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, Best Jazz Instrumental Performance and Best Engineered Recording. Director Michael Apted's film of that period followed the building of the band and its first concert in France.
His next album was ...Nothing Like the Sun in 1987. Its title comes from Shakespeare's Sonnet 130. "Be Still My Beating Heart" was dedicated to his mother, who had recently died. "Englishman in New York" was about Quentin Crisp, and "The Secret Marriage" was adapted from Hanns Eisler. The album won Best British Album at the 1988 Brit Awards and went Double Platinum. In 1989 it brought three Grammy nominations, including his second straight nomination for Album of the Year.
The Soul Cages followed in 1991, dedicated to his late father. It went Platinum and included "All This Time" and a Grammy-winning title track.
Ten Summoner's Tales came in 1993 and peaked at number two on both the UK and US album charts. It went triple platinum in just over a year. He recorded it at Lake House, his Elizabethan country home in Wiltshire. The title is wordplay on his surname and on "The Summoner's Tale" from Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. "Fields of Gold" was inspired by the barley fields beside the house. Its video showed Sting's silhouette walking through a village with a red telephone box. "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" earned him a second best male pop singer award at the 36th Grammy Awards.
Mercury Falling, in 1996, started strongly. "Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot" reached number 15 in the UK, but the album soon fell from the charts. "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying" became a US country hit in 1997 in a version with Toby Keith.
A quiet stretch followed. Then in September 1999 came Brand New Day. Stevie Wonder played harmonica on the title track, a UK number 13 hit. "Desert Rose" reached number 15. In 2000 the album and its title song both won Grammy Awards, and Sting performed "Desert Rose" at the ceremony with his collaborator Cheb Mami. The album was Triple Platinum by January 2001.
His next project was a live album at his villa in Figline Valdarno, set for the 11th of September 2001. The webcast was to carry the whole show, but the terrorist attacks in America that day changed the plan. The webcast closed after a reworked version of "Fragile". Sting let the audience decide whether to go on, and they chose to continue. The recording appeared in November as ...All This Time, dedicated to all those who lost their lives on that day.
Honours piled up. In 2002 he won a Golden Globe for "Until..." and the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In May 2002 the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors gave him the Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement. In the Queen's Birthday Honours of 2003 he was made a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. At the 54th Primetime Emmy Awards he won for his A&E special, Sting in Tuscany... All This Time.
Sacred Love arrived in 2003, with Mary J. Blige and sitar player Anoushka Shankar among the guests. Sting and Blige won a Grammy for "Whenever I Say Your Name". It was based on a Bach prelude, Praeambulum 1 C-Major, from the Klavierbuechlein fuer Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, though Sting said little about the borrowing. His autobiography, Broken Music, followed. In 2005 he toured smaller venues with a four-piece band, from the 28th of March to the 14th of May.
Three years after Bach, he would turn to a lutenist who lived in Elizabethan England.
AllMusic called Sting's recorded catalogue "difficult to pigeonhole". The collaborations explain why. In 1985, Miles Davis cast him on the album You're Under Arrest, where he gave spoken vocals as a French-speaking police officer. That June, Sting sang the line "I Want My MTV" on Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing".
Jazz kept calling him back. In 1987 arranger Gil Evans placed his songs in a big band setting for a live album. On Frank Zappa's 1988 album Broadway the Hard Way, Sting performed an arrangement of "Murder by Numbers" set to Oliver Nelson's "Stolen Moments". It was dedicated to the evangelist Jimmy Swaggart.
In October 1988 he recorded Igor Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale with the London Sinfonietta under Kent Nagano. Vanessa Redgrave, Ian McKellen and Gianna Nannini joined the cast, and Sting played the soldier. It was a taste of the classical world he would visit again.
Pop partnerships came as well. In 1993, he joined Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart on "All for Love" for the film The Three Musketeers. It held the top of the US charts for three weeks and reached number two in the UK. On the 4th of September 1997, he performed "I'll Be Missing You" with Puff Daddy at the MTV Video Music Awards, in tribute to Notorious B.I.G.
In October 2006 he released Songs from the Labyrinth, built around the music of the Elizabethan composer John Dowland. Bosnian lute player Edin Karamazov accompanied him. The project won Sting recognition in classical music. In 2010 came the Symphonicity tour and the Symphonicities album, which recast his songs for symphonic orchestra.
From February 2014 he toured with Paul Simon under the title On Stage Together. The first leg was 21 concerts in North America. Ten shows in Australia and New Zealand and 23 in Europe followed, ending on the 18th of April 2015. In 2016 he did a 19-date North American tour with Peter Gabriel.
On the 28th of August 2015, he released "Stolen Car" with the French singer Mylène Farmer. The song went straight to number one on French iTunes, then to the top of the main French singles chart. It gave Sting his first number one in France.
The 57th & 9th album followed in November 2016, his first rock album in many years. Its title names the New York intersection he crossed every day on the way to the studio. His manager, Martin Kierszenbaum, produced it. On the 12th of November 2016, he played the reopening of the Bataclan theatre in Paris, a year after the terrorist attack there. Henry Padovani, the Police's former guitarist, joined him for the encore "Next to You".
In April 2018 he released 44/876, his first studio album as a duo, with Shaggy. The 2019 album My Songs gathered 14 studio recordings and one live recording of his songs from the Police years and his solo career, newly re-recorded. The Bridge came out on the 19th of November 2021.
The next day, his single "What Could Have Been", with Ray Chen, appeared in the animated series Arcane. He then opened The Game Awards 2021 with it. Todd Marten of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the opening "might have launched the Grammy Awards". In February 2022, he reworked "Roxanne" with Swedish House Mafia as "Redlight".
The Polar Music Prize committee named him joint winner in 2017. It said that as a composer Sting had combined classic pop with virtuoso musicianship and an openness to all genres and sounds from around the world.
The Ace Face, the King of the Mods, was Sting's role in the 1979 film Quadrophenia, which adapted the Who album. That same year he played Just Like Eddie in Radio On. In The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, in 1980, he led the Blow Waves. The footage was cut, but it returned in the DVD version and in the 2000 documentary The Filth and the Fury.
He played Martin Taylor, a drifter, in Brimstone and Treacle in 1982. In 1984 he was Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in Dune, and his likeness was later used for that character in the Cryo Interactive video game adaptation. In 1985 he was Baron Frankenstein in The Bride and a black-marketeer named Mick in Plenty.
Later parts included a nightclub owner called Finney in Stormy Monday in 1988 and a "heroic officer" in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen the same year. In 1998, in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, he played J.D., Eddie's father and the owner of a bar. He also appeared as himself in The Simpsons episode "Radio Bart" in 1992 and hosted Saturday Night Live in 1991.
Peake's novels reached him on radio. In 1984, BBC Radio 4 broadcast Titus Groan and Gormenghast with Sting as Steerpike. He bought the film rights to the Gormenghast books. He named pets, a racehorse, his publishing company and one of his daughters after characters from them. Fuschia, in the books, is actually spelled Fuchsia.
Film songs earned him Academy Award nominations. He recorded music for the Disney film Kingdom of the Sun, which was reworked into The Emperor's New Groove. His wife, Trudie Styler, documented the overhauls and plot changes, which left some songs unused. The 2000 soundtrack for the finished film included songs from the earlier version. "My Funny Friend and Me" gave him his first Oscar nomination for Best Song.
The second came for "Until...", which he wrote and performed for Kate & Leopold, and which also won the 2002 Golden Globe. The third was for "You Will Be My Ain True Love" from Cold Mountain, a duet with Alison Krauss that the pair performed at the 76th Academy Awards.
On stage, he wrote "Message in a Bottle" into the 1982 show Rock 'N Roll! The First 5,000 Years. In 1989 he played Macheath in 3 Penny Opera on Broadway.
His largest theatre project grew from the place he left. For several years he worked on The Last Ship, a musical drawn from his childhood and from the shipbuilding industry in Wallsend. It tells of the demise of British shipbuilding in 1980s Newcastle. The album, his eleventh studio album, was released on the 24th of September 2013. Brian Johnson of AC/DC was among guests with roots in northeast England. The musical opened in Chicago in June 2014 and moved to Broadway in the autumn, with Sting playing Jackie White.
In November 2025 it was announced that Sting would star in an adapted version of The Last Ship at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. It subsequently toured to Paris, Amsterdam and Brisbane in 2026.
A producer's invitation changed how Sting thought about the world. In September 1981, Martin Lewis asked him to join The Secret Policeman's Other Ball, the fourth Amnesty International gala, co-founded by Monty Python's John Cleese. "Before the Ball I did not know about Amnesty, I did not know about its work, I did not know about torture in the world," Sting said.
He appeared on all four nights at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London, playing solo versions of "Roxanne" and "Message in a Bottle". These were his first live solo appearances. In the finale he led an all-star group called the Secret Police through his reggae-tinged arrangement of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released". Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Phil Collins, Donovan, Bob Geldof and Midge Ure sat in. It was the first time he worked with Geldof.
The interest was not new. His 1980 song "Driven to Tears" indicted indifference to world hunger. In November 1984 he sang on Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?", recorded at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London. That led to Live Aid at Wembley Stadium in July 1985, where he performed with Phil Collins and Dire Straits. In 1984 he also sang "Every Bomb You Make", a reworded "Every Breath You Take" for the British satirical puppet show Spitting Image.
In June 1986, he reunited with the Police for the last three shows of Amnesty's six-date A Conspiracy of Hope concerts in the US. The next day he told NBC's Today Show that he had been an Amnesty member and supporter for five years. In 1988 he toured for six weeks with Peter Gabriel and Bruce Springsteen on Human Rights Now!, marking the 40th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The rainforest became a long commitment. With Trudie Styler and Raoni Metuktire, a Kayapo leader in Brazil, he founded the Rainforest Foundation Fund. In 1989 he flew to the Altamira Gathering to offer support. The fund holds an annual benefit concert at Carnegie Hall, where guests have included Billy Joel, Elton John and James Taylor. A Colombian tree frog, Dendropsophus stingi, bears his name for his commitment to saving the rainforest.
In 1988 the single "They Dance Alone (Cueca Sola)" told of the mothers, wives and daughters of the disappeared, political opponents killed under Chile's Pinochet dictatorship.
Benefit stages followed the news. On the 15th of September 1997, he played the Music for Montserrat concert at the Royal Albert Hall, a benefit for the Caribbean island devastated by a volcano. In September 2001 he sang "Fragile" on America: A Tribute to Heroes. A concert in Western Australia in February 2005 raised $4 million for the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. On the 2nd of November 2012, his "Message in a Bottle" on Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together was part of a show that reportedly raised $23 million.
In 2011 he joined more than 30 others in an open letter to Prime Minister David Cameron urging immediate decriminalisation of drug possession if a policy review showed it had failed. That July he cancelled a concert in Astana, Kazakhstan, after Amnesty International raised concerns about the rights of Kazakh oil and gas workers and their families.
Politics reached the music industry too. In October 2018 he was among the musicians who signed a letter to Prime Minister Theresa May, drafted by Bob Geldof, calling for a second vote on Brexit. It warned that Brexit would affect everything from touring to royalty collection.
On the 1st of May 1976, Sting married the actress Frances Tomelty. They had two children, Joseph, born on the 23rd of November 1976, and Fuschia Katherine, known as Kate, born on the 17th of April 1982. In 1980 he became a tax exile in Galway, Ireland. After Kate's birth he separated from Tomelty, and they divorced in 1984 after his affair with the actress Trudie Styler.
The split was controversial. The Independent noted in 2006 that Tomelty was Styler's best friend, and that the couples had lived next door to each other in Bayswater, west London, for several years. In a 2025 interview, Sting said Styler inspired "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic", a song he wrote in 1977.
He married Styler at Camden Register Office on the 20th of August 1992. Two days later the couple had their wedding blessed at the twelfth-century parish church of St Andrew in Great Durnford, Wiltshire. Three of their four children were born before the wedding. They are Brigitte Michael, known as Mickey, born on the 19th of January 1984, Jake, born on the 24th of May 1985, Eliot Paulina, known as Coco, born on the 30th of July 1990, and Giacomo Luke, born on the 17th of December 1995. Coco founded and fronts the group I Blame Coco. Giacomo Luke inspired the name of the Kentucky Derby-winning horse Giacomo.
Both of his parents died of cancer, his mother in 1986 and his father in 1987. He attended neither funeral, so as not to draw media attention to them.
Money brought trouble. In 1995 he gave evidence in court against his former accountant, Keith Moore, who had misappropriated £6 million of his money. Moore was jailed for six years. Sting owns several homes, including Lake House and its sixty-acre estate near Salisbury, a penthouse at 220 Central Park South in New York City and the Villa Il Palagio estate in Figline Valdarno, Tuscany. He once owned a house at 2 The Grove in Highgate, which had belonged to the violinist Yehudi Menuhin.
The Sunday Times Rich List estimated his wealth at £175 million in April 2009, ranking him 322nd in Britain. By 2019 it put his fortune at £320 million. In February 2022, Universal Music Group bought his catalogue of solo works and Police recordings for an undisclosed amount. Forbes ranked him the highest-paid solo musician of 2022, with estimated earnings of $210 million.
His habits are unusually disciplined. For years he ran five miles a day and did aerobics, and he joined the Race Against Time charity runs for Sport Aid in 1986 and 1988. Around 1990, Danny Paradise introduced him to yoga, and he took up the Ashtanga Vinyasa series. He later added Tantra and Jivamukti Yoga, and he was reported in 2008 to practise Transcendental Meditation. He also does pilates and follows a macrobiotic diet. He is colour blind and has said that this makes black and white videos appealing.
In 2000 he played chess against grandmaster Garry Kasparov in an exhibition. Four bandmates joined him: Dominic Miller, Jason Rebello, Chris Botti and Russ Irwin. Kasparov beat all five at once in fifty minutes.
He supports his hometown club, Newcastle United. In 2009 he backed fans who opposed owner Mike Ashley's plan to sell the naming rights to St James' Park, and he wrote a song for the club called "Black and White Army (Bringing the Pride Back Home)". In August 2014 he donated money to the Friends of Tynemouth Outdoor Pool, to restore a 1920s lido near his birthplace. In a 2011 Time interview he described himself as agnostic and said the certainties of religious faith were dangerous.
Some choices drew fire. In October 2009, he played a concert in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, for an arts festival. He said he believed UNICEF sponsored it, but UNICEF stated it had no connection with the event. The press criticised him for taking between one and two million pounds from President Islam Karimov, whom the UN and Amnesty accuse of human rights abuses.
On the 17th of January 2023, he gave a private performance for fifty top Microsoft executives at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The next day Microsoft announced plans to lay off 10,000 people. The Wall Street Journal reported that some employees thought the timing wrong for a company-sponsored concert, and the event went viral.
In September 2025, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers sued him at the London High Court. They allege that he underpaid them royalties from digital exploitation of the Police's recordings. Sting denies it and says he actually overpaid them.
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Updated
Common questions
Who is Sting and what is his real name?
Sting is an English musician and actor born Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner. He was born in Wallsend, Northumberland, on the 2nd of October 1951 and never legally changed his name to Sting.
How did Sting get his nickname?
Bandleader Gordon Solomon of the Phoenix Jazzmen gave him the nickname. He remarked that Sumner's habitual black-and-yellow striped jumper made him look like a wasp.
When did Sting join and leave the Police?
Sting joined Stewart Copeland and Henry Padovani in January 1977 to form the Police. He decided to leave during a concert at Shea Stadium on the 18th of August 1983, though the band never formally broke up.
What was Sting's first solo album?
Sting's first solo album was The Dream of the Blue Turtles, released in 1985. It featured jazz musicians such as Branford Marsalis and Omar Hakim and went Triple Platinum within a year.
What is Sting's musical The Last Ship about?
The Last Ship tells the story of the demise of British shipbuilding in 1980s Newcastle. It draws on Sting's childhood in Wallsend, debuted in Chicago in June 2014 and moved to Broadway that autumn.
What charity causes does Sting support?
Sting supports Amnesty International, which he first worked with in September 1981, and co-founded the Rainforest Foundation Fund with Trudie Styler and Raoni Metuktire. He also took part in Band Aid, Live Aid and Live 8.
How many records has Sting sold?
Sting has sold more than 100 million records, counting both his solo career and his time with the Police.
All sources
196 references cited across the entry
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- 5NewsSting added to Bourbon & Beyond lineup, replaces Neil YoungConnor Smith — 15 July 2024
- 6NewsTom Hanks, Sting, others saluted at Kennedy Center HonorsCBS News — 7 December 2014
- 7Sting and Wayne Shorter Win Polar Music PrizeAndrew R. Chow — 7 February 2017
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- 14BookBroken MusicSting — Simon & Schuster — 2003
- 15Sting: The secrets of steering a band from the low endChris Jisi — 8 January 2020
- 16Sting2 July 2020
- 17Notable AlumniNorthumbria University
- 18BookA Sting in the taleJames Berryman — Mirage Publishing — 2000
- 19JournalThe Police: Every Little Thing They Sang Was MagicSean Egan — 8 August 2003
- 20Sting: A Renaissance man22 September 2016
- 21Sting Turns 60 – How Did that Happen?Elizabeth Periale — omg! — 4 October 2011
- 22Magazine10 Questions for StingBelinda Luscombe — 21 November 2011
- 23Sting on How He Got His Nickname and Writing "Roxanne" (2016)Howard Stern — 5 February 2023
- 26Billboard, 13 Dec 2003. p. 26
- 27'Last Play at Shea' documentary tells stadium's story20 April 2010
- 28MagazineThe Police: A Fragile TruceDavid Fricke — 22 January 2015
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- 30Magazine500 Greatest Albums of All Time31 May 2012
- 33MagazineThe Police: 100 Greatest Artists of All TimeBrandon Flowers
- 34BookIndie Hits 1980–1989'Barry Lazell — Cherry Red Books — 1997
- 35BookBritish Hit Singles & AlbumsDavid Roberts — Guinness World Records Limited — 2006
- 36Analysis of this song, the H. Eisler-adaption The Secret Marriage and the J.S. Bach-quote in Whenever I Say Your Name in: Michael Custodis, chapter "Sting als Songwriter zwischen Prokofiev, Eisler, Ba
- 41NewsLive Aid: The show that rocked the world5 April 2000
- 43BookNew York Times Film ReviewsThe New York Times Company — 1988
- 45"The 100 Greatest Albums of the 80s." Rolling Stone. Special Issue 1990. Retrieved 19 November 2011
- 46Barry Lazell (1989). Rock movers & shakers p.487. Billboard Publications, Inc., 1989
- 56Analysis of the piece in: Michael Custodis, chapter Sting als Songwriter zwischen Prokofiev, Eisler, Bach und Dowland, in: Klassische Musik heute. Eine Spurensuche in der Rockmusik, Bielefeld transcri
- 57NewsReview: "The 76th Annual Academy Awards"Brian Lowry — 29 February 2004
- 58NewsAnnie Lennox: career timelineCulture — 7 October 2011
- 61Sting and Edin Karamazov: 'Songs from the Labyrinth'Flyinginkpot.com — 22 February 1999
- 64NewsSting at Guitar Art Festival in Belgrade...Sting.com — 10 February 2009
- 65Press releaseSting set to release new recording If on a Winter's Night...Sting.com — 17 June 2009
- 66Fan Reviews of 'If on a Winter's Night' New CD by StingStingUs-team — Stingus.net — 6 October 2009
- 67Tom Morello, John Legend, Sting brought out as special guests at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th anniversary concertKyle Anderson — MTV — 30 October 2009
- 68Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert: Set ListJohn Pareles — 30 October 2009
- 69The Police: inducted in 2003Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
- 70NewsClash, Costello and Police Enter Rock Hall of FameJohn Pareles — 11 March 2003
- 71NewsRocker Sting Stung by Controversy Over Secret Concert for Dictator's DaughterEd Barnes — Fox News — 13 April 2010
- 72New Sting album 'Symphonicities'Decca Records — 16 June 2010
- 73Symphonicity tour: A few thoughts on Sting and stringsAnn Powers — 16 June 2010
- 74Sting Announces 2013 'Back To Bass' Tour, Includes 3 New England DatesJillian Mapes — WZLX — 24 January 2013
- 75MagazineThe 2011 TIME 100: Sting
- 78Sting and the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio at 92nd Street YGoldstar Events — 2011
- 79Sting and Brian Yorkey Embark on a New Musical, 'The Last Ship'1 September 2011
- 80STING'S THE LAST SHIP – New Album From the 16-Time Grammy® Award WinnerSting.com — 5 June 2013
- 81MagazineSting's Visceral, Emotional 'The Last Ship' Arrives on Broadway3 November 2014
- 82NewsSting sails into Chicago to promote 'Last Ship'Scott C Morgan — 11 October 2013
- 83NewsSting: The Last Ship – reviewCaroline Sullivan — 19 September 2013
- 84MagazineThe Last ShipAnthony Decurtis — 24 September 2013
- 86MagazinePaul Simon and Sting Q&A: Tour Mates on Shared Music DNA and Future 'Writing'Gary Graff — 10 February 2014
- 87Sting & Paul Simon: On Stage Together – Second & Final Perth Show Added!Sting.com — 10 July 2014
- 88Sting & Paul Simon: On Stage Together – Final New Zealand Show Confirmed!Sting.com — 25 August 2014
- 89BELFAST DATE ADDED FOR 'PAUL SIMON & STING: ON STAGE TOGETHER' 2015 EUROPEAN TOURPaulSimon.com — 13 November 2014
- 90Summer : 2015Sting.com — February 2015
- 92Stolen Car – Single par Mylène Farmer & StingiTunes Store
- 93Mylène Farmer: Un nouvel album au titre évocateur – GalaPrisma Presse — 15 September 2015
- 95Sting, Peter Gabriel to headline Summerfest on July 1019 January 2016
- 98Upcoming...November 2016
- 100Sting '57th & 9th' Tour – Theatre, Club and Arena Tour Announced...14 November 2016
- 101Sting's Son to Join Him for Croatia Concert10 April 2017
- 102Avec Sting, le monde entier va voir le Bataclan revivre!Lena Lutaud — 4 November 2016
- 107NewsThe Queen celebrates her 92nd birthday in style with star-studded concert21 April 2018
- 109MagazineHear Sting Rework Three Classics for New Album 'My Songs'28 March 2019
- 110NewsSTING TEASES NEW ALBUM WITH 'RE-IMAGINED' VERSIONS OF HIS HITS10 January 2019
- 111NewsSting is coming to Taos
- 116NewsRicky Martin sorprende con "Pausa", un EP en el que muestra su lado más vulnerable durante la cuarentenaMarysabel E Huston-Crespo — CNN en Español — 29 May 2020
- 118Duets – StingStephen Thomas Erlewine
- 119Riot's Arcane soundtrack features Imagine Dragons, Sting, Denzel Curry, Pusha T, Bea Miller, and moreTyler Esguerra — 26 October 2021
- 120Arcane: League of Legends – Every Song, Ranked3 February 2022
- 121The DeanBeat: The Game Awards and the game industry are back10 December 2021
- 122Game Awards, with audience in the millions, must now be bold and address industry issuesTodd Marten — 10 December 2021
- 123Swedish House Mafia officially release new song 'Redlight'3 March 2022
- 124NewsSting Is the Latest Rock Star to Sell His Song Catalog to UniversalCagan Koc — 10 February 2022
- 127NewsMicrosoft execs held ritzy party with rocker Sting before massive layoffs19 January 2023
- 128NewsSting Is Sued by His Former Bandmates in the Police5 September 2025
- 130The Last Ship review – Sting's sincere but cloying musical stars the man himself – and ShaggyMonique Ross — 12 April 2026
- 131Sing AllMusic BioStephen Thomas Erlewine
- 132BookThe Greenwood Encyclopedia of Rock History: The video generation, 1981–1990MaryAnn Janosik — Greenwood Press — 2006
- 133MagazineReaders Poll: Ten Best Post-Band Solo Artists – 7. Sting2 May 2012
- 13530 Legendary Rock + Metal Bassists Who Play With A PickRob CarrollRob Carroll — 13 September 2024
- 136Gear Rundown: the bass guitars of Sting28 July 2025
- 137NewsREVOLVER10 October 2006
- 138Sting TV Interview On NBC Today Show about Amnesty concerts22 April 2008
- 142JournalThe Role of Indigenous Peoples in the Environmental Crisis: The Example of the Kayapo of the Brazilian AmazonTerence Turner — 1993
- 143JournalA new species of frog of the genus Hyla from the Cordillera Oriental in northern Colombia with comments on the taxonomy of Hyla minutaM. Kaplan — Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles — 1994
- 144Chilean Women's Resistance in the Arpillera Movement19 June 2008
- 145The Courage of Conscience AwardThe Peace Abbey
- 146NewsMusicians, actors honor heroes, raise money for attack victimsJohn Carman — 22 September 2001
- 147NewsSting Concert Raises 4 m for Tsunami11 February 2005
- 148The original and the best: 30 years of Leeuwin Estate concerts17 February 2014
- 149NewsWillie Nelson stages Tsunami gig10 January 2005
- 151Sting, Matthews, Mayer gamer for Tibet than BeijingE! — 22 July 2008
- 152Magazine'Hope for Haiti Now': The telethon's 10 best performancesDave Karger — 22 January 2010
- 153NewsEarth Day Climate Rally features music, speeches and an assist from Mother NatureChris Richards — 26 April 2010
- 154Elton John AIDS Foundation patronsElton John AIDS Foundation
- 155NewsDame Judi Dench and Sting head drug rethink call2 June 2011
- 156MagazineNBC Hurricane Sandy Telethon Raises 23 Million5 November 2012
- 157NewsSting til TV-aksjonenKarina Kaupang Jørgensen — NRK — 23 September 2015
- 158NewsCelebrities' open letter to Scotland – full text and list of signatories7 August 2014
- 159NewsUK music stars rail against Brexit in open letter to Theresa May6 October 2018
- 160NewsWall Street Fighters, Do-Gooders—And Sting—Converge in New Jana Fund7 January 2018
- 162The Returns of the Prodigal Tax ExileGary McMahon — August 2008
- 163Sting | Music's Top Twelve Tax ExilesComcast.net
- 164GQ, June 1985, Interview with Fred Schruers
- 165NewsSting on Love and Wife Trudie Styler: She Rocks MeJanine Rubenstein — December 19, 2019
- 166Interview: The thing about Sting…24 September 2011
- 167Interview: Trudie StylerAdam Higginbotham — 3 August 2002
- 168Trudie Styler: The truth about Trudie4 August 2006
- 169Recorded 1981 Song With a HORRIBLE COLD...Became the BIGGEST SONG EVER! Professor of RockAdam Reader — 1 March 2025
- 170Interview Date: October 1996Phil Sutcliffe — October 1996
- 171NewsEvery Little Horse He Names is Magic (Or Just About)4 November 2010
- 172NewsSting's adviser jailed for pounds 6m theft from star18 October 1995
- 173NewsSting Buys $65.7 Million Penthouse on Manhattan's Billionaires' RowJordi Lippe-Mcgraw — 31 July 2019
- 174BookHighgate: Its history since the Fifteenth CenturyJohn Richardson — Eyre and Spottiswoode — 1983
- 175Sting and YogaYogaEdge — 1 June 2011
- 176Yoga Beyond BeliefWhite Lotus Foundation
- 177Maharishi Mahesh YogiJay Shankar — Bloomberg L.P. — 6 February 2008
- 178Sting Daily Routine16 January 2021
- 179Sting Battles Chess King Kasparov in Times SquareManning, Kara — MTV — 30 June 2000
- 180Newcastle United fans campaign backed by StingMitchell, Terry — The Football Fan Census — 12 November 2009
- 181Celeb Toon fans join protest against Ashley25 April 2015
- 182NewsSearch the Sunday Times Rich List 200926 April 2009
- 183NewsWho made the Sunday Times Rich List this year?Emily Mee — Sky News — 14 May 2019
- 184NewsGeordie star Sting's cash gift to help save Tynemouth Outdoor PoolSonia Sharma — 3 August 2013
- 185Sting health: Singer shares key habits to incorporate helping with ageing and longevityJessica Knibbs — 11 December 2021
- 186Sting's Macrobiotic, Yoga-Heavy Life On The RoadKatherine Thomson — 28 March 2008
- 187Video Killed the Radio Star: Artist's View Documentary series (2009)
- 190BookSting and IJames Berryman — John Blake — 2005
- 191BookA Sting in the TaleJames Berryman — Mirage Publishing — 2000
- 192BookFuckin' Hell It's Paul CannellPaul Cannell — Poodle Publishing — 2012
- 193BookSting: From Northern Skies to Fields of GoldPaul Carr — Reaktion Books — 2017
- 194BookSting: The Secret Life of Gordon SumnerWensley Clarkson — Thunder's Mouth Press — 1999
- 195BookThe Words and Music of StingChristopher Gable — Praeger — 2009
- 196BookSting and Religion: The Catholic-Shaped Imagination of a Rock IconEvyatar Marienberg — Cascade Books / Wipf & Stock — 2021
- 197BookSting: Demolition ManChristopher Sandford — Carroll & Graf — 1998
- 198BookBroken Music: A MemoirSting — Dial Press — 2003
- 199BookSting and The Police: Walking in Their FootstepsAaron J. West — Rowman & Littlefield — 2015