Berlin, October 21st, 2026 (The Berlin Spectator) — The metamorphosis of Mr. Gordon Sumner, who dumped his conventional name long ago and replaced it with Sting, is just as fascinating as his work. People can like or dislike his music, but nobody can deny that most sounds he has delivered are part of the high-quality rubric in Rock, Pop and Folk.
The only problem Sting’s hits have, no matter whether it is ‘Roxanne’ or ‘Englishman in New York’, is that they have been played on the world’s many radio stations far too much. Of course 99.9 percent of all Pop and Rock musicians in the world would kill if only they could have this problem instead of their own.
In the 1980s, when it all started, musical quality was still an important aspect. In this regard, Sting’s band The Police actually did not get to the highest level in 1978, when they released their first album entitled ‘Outlandos D’Amour’. This record attracted people because of the mood, drive and energy it transported. What The Police came up with was partially on the dark side, meaning some tunes were Punk-influenced, such as ‘Truth Hits Everybody’.
The Man Who Stuck Out
The Police consisted of three new guys on the block who attracted young girls, and probably boys, with both their sounds and their sex appeal. Whatever the interpretation of The Police’s first album might be: It was very successful. It literally exploded. Almost everyone in the world will identify ‘Roxanne’.
In articles about genius musicians like Sting, it usually says “he grew up in a musical family”. Well, he did not. His mother was a hairdresser and his father an engineer and milk man. The Northern Counties College of Education in Northumberland was not exactly Juilliard. Sting was a bus driver and teacher. Music became a priority when he attended Cream and Manfred Mann gigs. He started singing with Jazz acts at night, since his unique voice and stage presence always stuck out.
From 1977 to 1983, for six years, Sting was an integral part of the big ride The Police had. Five studio albums and countless world tours kept the guys busy. Sting was their main composer and frontman on the bass. While his bass playing seemed rather simplistic for a while, his voice always killed it.
It’s Definitely Him
In 1983, the year The Police released ‘Synchronicity’, Sting was on stage the moment he decided to leave the band in order to become a solo artist. By then, the group had already dumped their more aggressive Punk sounds. They fit the Pop music world even better than six years earlier. But Sting became the singer/songwriter he had to become, as a solo artist. The man in the center of it all, Sting formerly known as Gordon Sumner, became one of the three biggest superstars of the 1980s.
Does The Berlin Spectator offer a newsletter? Sure. Subscribe to it here.
‘Fragile’, ‘It’s Probably Me’, whatever he composed, was a success. His pieces were played by radio stations until listeners got sick of them, and they were interpreted by fellow artists. The nicest cover of ‘It’s Probably Me’ was delivered by Vanessa Rubin many years ago.
Drowned in Awards
Let’s hit the fast forward button or this article will never end: Sting has recorded a dozen studio albums so far. As an actor, he played in quite a few movies and TV shows. As a chess player, he lost against Garry Kasparov. In short: There is nothing the superstar cannot do, except for winning against the Russian chess master.
There are three words this brilliant article just needs to contain. They are ‘Eighteen’, ‘Grammy’ and ‘Awards’, in this order. Of course he was nominated for many more and drowned in a million other awards, including an American Music Award, Brit Awards and, as you can imagine, a whole lot of other prizes. How many Ikea shelves does Sting need to display all of them? We might never know.
Now we are finally getting to the best part of this article: Why did we even publish it? Because he is coming. No, not Godot, but Sting. To Germany. These are the dates:
June 12th, 2027: Magdeburg, Event Plaza
June 13th, 2027: Berlin, Zitadelle
June 17th, 2027: Rastatt, Ehrenhof des Residenzschlosses
June 20th, 2027: Hemer, Sauerlandpark Open Air
June 22nd, 2027: Wiesbaden, Brita-Arena
June 26th, 2027: Fulda, Domplatz
June 27th, 2027: Konstanz, Klein Venedig
June 29th, 2027: Heidenheim, Brenzpark
Did we mention Sting’s Austrian gigs? On June 4th, he is scheduled to perform in Salzburg, on June 30th in Klagenfurt.
Tickets for the German and Austrian concerts will be available here, starting on October 23rd, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. CEST.
