Born on October 2: Sting, no retirement announced for the tireless singer

Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, better known as Sting, was born on October 2, 1951, in Newcastle, United Kingdom. The eldest child of the family grew up near the shipyards that provided the region with a livelihood, in a modest, working-class home.

He quickly became interested in music, encouraged by his mother, an amateur pianist and musical comedy enthusiast. He learned to play the piano, harmonica, and mandolin. "I learned music with my record player. I dissected Beatles records with a manic obsession, resetting the pickup needle hundreds of times to analyse the magical sequence of chords, the structure of a riff, a guitar solo," he confided years later in an interview.

But he embarked on a different career at the age of twenty, becoming a teacher at St. Paul's Middle School in Cramlington. However, his passion for music soon caught up with him, which he indulged in by hanging out in local clubs and joining a local jazz band, The Phoenix Jazzmen.

One evening, while sporting a black sweater with yellow stripes, his friends in the band teased him and nicknamed him "Sting" and this sweater definitely reminded them of a bee. Thus, a somewhat schoolboy joke gave the future star his international stage name.

Some time later, the group, which previously only did covers, decided to give new impetus to its repertoire and offer original compositions. But, to his surprise and disappointment, despite his obvious talent, Sting didn't know music theory. He was unceremoniously fired from the band. However, he learned music theory in a month but couldn't get back to his former bandmates. He had already been replaced.

Regardless, Sting then joined The Last Exit. The group decided to move to London to try their luck. Having given up his teaching job, the young artist decided to bet everything on his career in music, much to the dismay of his father, who wanted him to choose "a real job."

In the British capital, Sting, at a time when we didn't know if he kept his famous sweater but now knew music theory, was spotted at a party by Stewart Copeland, who offered him a job become a bassist for the pop-rock band The Police, alongside Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers. Their first album, "Outlandos d’amour", was released in 1978. It contained the essential hit "Roxanne". It was during a stay in Paris that Sting wrote what was to become a hit. It tells the story of a man who falls in love with a prostitute and decides to help her. The subject was inspired by a Parisian neighbourhood frequented by prostitutes, not far from the hotel where he was staying. The name came to him as if by chance after seeing a poster for the play "Cyrano de Bergerac" in which one of the characters is named Roxane. Another anecdote: while recording the song, Sting accidentally sat down on the piano and laughed out loud. His clumsiness was retained in the first seconds of the song and undoubtedly gave it a bit of the aura that made it a hit. The singles "Message in a Bottle" and "Walking on the Moon" would later cement The Police's reputation.

In 1980, "Zenyatta Mondatta" was the band's second album, followed by "Ghost in the Machine" a year later. The releases followed one after another, with no fewer than five albums in six years. In 1983, "Synchronicity" contained one of their legendary hits, "Every Breath You Take." How many slow dances were performed to this song, written during the end of Sting's first marriage, who later said he wrote it in the midst of a depression? "I woke up in the middle of the night with that line stuck in my head, sat down at the piano, and wrote it in half an hour. It sounds like a comforting love song. I didn't realise at the time how sinister it was."

At the end of their "Synchronicity Tour" in Melbourne, the band announced they were taking a hiatus and a year off. However, the announced year would last much longer than expected, as The Police would never return to the studio. In 1985, the Newcastle native launched a solo career and released his debut album, "The Dream of the Blue Turtles." The album received an enthusiastic reception from both the press and the public and contained several gems like "Russians" (about the Cold War) and "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free." Their subsequent albums, "Nothing Like the Sun" (in which he collaborated with Eric Clapton) and "The Soul Cages," inspired by his father's death and featuring Manu Katché as drummer, also achieved number one spots in the UK charts.

Two years later, "Ten Summoner's Tales" was released. The singer, still as productive as ever, then released "Brand New Day," which included, among other things, the single "Desert Rose," a duet with Cheb Mami, and which quickly became an international hit. 2003 saw the release of "Sacred Love," which was less successful than its predecessors. Three years later, "Songs From the Labyrinth" was released.

In 2007, Sting reunited with his former bandmates from The Police for a worldwide tour. "The Police Reunion Tour" attracted some 2.7 million fans, thirty years after the band's debut. Released in July 2010, "Symphonicities" revisited his standards in a symphonic version. In 2013, his childhood memories near the port of Newcastle inspired his album "The Last Ship" and the eponymous musical, which would be performed on Broadway. "I grew up in a ghost town devastated by the shipyard crisis. This story haunts me, and I need to tell it," the star confided.

The following years were devoted to touring, including one with Paul Simon in 2014. In 2015, he collaborated with Mylène Farmer on the song "Stolen Car," which quickly reached number one in France and the US. In 2016, Sting joined forces with Peter Gabriel for a 21-concert tour of the US. That same year, his new album, "57th & 9th," was released, marking his return to a more abrasive rock sound, but also Sting's support for numerous causes, including global warming with "One Fine Day."

The singer's commitment has always driven him, and his fame has often allowed him to highlight issues close to his heart. He co-founded the Rainforest Foundation to preserve the Amazon rainforest and regularly performs in charity concerts, including for Amnesty International and the annual event he organises with his wife, Trudie Styler.

In 2017, he embarked on a world tour, performing in no fewer than 104 cities and 41 countries. He underwent a change of style that same year with the release of his new album, in collaboration with Shaggy. In 2019, he returned to his classics with the album "My Songs," in which he revisited his greatest hits, both solo and with the Police. That same year, he sang "Reste" as a duet with Gims!

In 2021, during the pandemic, he didn't stay inactive and recorded "The Bridge," his fifteenth studio album. Since then, the singer, who has sold over 100 million albums, has continued to perform on stages around the world and at festivals, such as this summer at Fontainebleau. Tireless and unstoppable, Sting celebrates his 73rd birthday today. This father of six children (one of whom is now a member of his band) and now grandfather recently confided: "You always have to dream big." The little boy, a Beatles fan, was certainly already thinking the same thing, gazing at a loss in the Newcastle shipyards.

(MH with Céline Massart - Photo : Etienne Tordoir)

Photo: Sting during his "My Songs" tour on stage at the Gent Jazz Festival (Belgium) in July 2022