Sting is the professional stage name of popular British singer-songwriter Gordon Sumner CBE, famous as a solo performer and member of the rock band The Police.

Born in Wallsend, England on 2^nd October 1951, Sumner learned to play the Spanish guitar at a very young age. While playing music gigs as a teenager he used to wear a black and yellow sweater with hooped stripes and was told he looked like a wasp – leading to the nickname Sting. In 1977 he moved to London, met Stewart Copeland and Henry Padovani (soon to be replaced by Andy Summers) and formed New Wave rock trio The Police.

The band released their first album Outlandos d’Amour, containing their unique brand of rock music infused with jazz, punk and reggae, in 1978. Although initially unsuccessful, the singles Roxanne and Can’t Stand Losing You slowly gained popularity and soon The Police were on everybody’s radar.  As a result of their slow success, their second album Reggatta de Blanc topped the UK charts, spawning the number one singles Message in a Bottle and Walking on the Moon, while the title track won a 1981 Grammy Award.

The group’s final album Synchronicity included their most successful song: Every Breath You Take. The single spent eight weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and earned the band two Grammy Awards, but soon after its release the group separated to work on solo projects. Sting immediately started performing alone and released his first solo single in 1982, a cover of Vivian Ellis’ Spread A Little Happiness, which reached number sixteen in the UK.

Sting’s first solo album, 1985’s The Dream of the Blue Turtles, went triple platinum and included the hit singles If You Love Somebody Set Them Free, Fortress Around Your Heart and Love Is the Seventh Wave. The album …Nothing Like the Sun followed in 1987 and sparked hits like We’ll Be Together, Fragile and Englishman in New York, while 1991’s The Soul Cages spawned four hit singles – All This Time, Mad About You, Why Should I Cry For You and The Soul Cages – and won Sting yet another Grammy Award.

Sting continued to release music throughout the 1990s and 2000s, most notably the singles Fields of Gold, All For Love, Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot and Desert Rose, and is still producing music today. He is currently touring North America and Europe with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.