Sting

Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner (born 2 October 1951), known as Sting, is an English musician, activist and actor.

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 engineer.

He grew up near Wallsend's shipyards, which made an impression on him.

As a child, he was inspired by the Queen Mother waving at him from a Rolls-Royce to divert from the shipyard prospect towards a more glamorous life.

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 simultaneously sing and play by listening to records at 78 rpm.

He was 63rd of VH1's 100 greatest artists of rock, and 80th of Q's 100 greatest musical stars of the 20th century.

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.

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) from 1971 to 1974 and qualified as a teacher.

He taught at St Paul's First School in Cramlington for two years.

Sting performed jazz in the evenings, on weekends, and during breaks from college and teaching, playing with the Phoenix Jazzmen, Newcastle Big Band and Last Exit.

He gained his nickname after his habit of wearing a black and yellow jumper with hooped stripes with the Phoenix Jazzmen.

Bandleader Gordon Solomon thought he looked like a bee (or according to Sting himself, "they thought I looked like a wasp"), which prompted the name "Sting".

He was the frontman, songwriter and bassist for new wave band the Police from 1977 until their breakup in 1986.

In January 1977, Sting moved from Newcastle to London and joined Stewart Copeland and Henry Padovani (soon replaced by Andy Summers) to form the Police.

From 1978 to 1983, they 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.

He launched a solo career in 1985 and has included elements of rock, jazz, reggae, classical, new-age, and worldbeat in his music.

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?"

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 2000, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for recording.

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 2003, Sting received a CBE from Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for services to music.

In 2006, Paste ranked him 62nd of the 100 best living songwriters.

In 2011, he told Time that "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".

He was made a Kennedy Center Honoree at the White House in 2014 and was awarded the Polar Music Prize in 2017.

In May 2023, he was made an Ivor Novello Fellow.

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.

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.

In 2019, he received a BMI Award for "Every Breath You Take" becoming the most-played song in radio history.