Sting (Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner) was born on 2 October 1951, is an English musician from Newcastle upon Tyne. Prior to starting his solo career, he was the principal composer, lead singer and bass player of the rock band The Police.

Sumner was born in Wallsend, near Newcastle upon Tyne in northeast England, to Audrey Cowell and her husband, Ernest Sumner. He is the eldest of four children and has a brother, Philip, and two sisters, Angela and Anita.

From an early age, Sumner knew that he wanted to be a musician. His first music gigs were wherever he could get a job, performing evenings, weekends, and during vacations from college and teaching. He played with local jazz bands such as the Phoenix Jazzmen, the Newcastle Big Band, and Last Exit.

In September 1981, Sting made his first live solo appearance, performing on all four nights of the fourth Amnesty International benefit The Secret Policeman's Other Ball at the invitation of producer Martin Lewis. He performed solo versions of "Roxanne" and "Message in a Bottle", playing the guitar.

In October 2006, Sting released an album, to mixed reviews, entitled Songs from the Labyrinth featuring the music of John Dowland (an Elizabethan-era composer) and accompaniment from Bosnian lute player Edin Karamazov.

As a part of the promotion of this album, he appeared on the fifth episode of Studio 60 during which he performed a segment of Dowland's "Come Again" as well as his own "Fields of Gold" in the arrangement for voice and two archlutes.

Reports surfaced in early 2007 that Sting would reunite with his former Police bandmates for a 30th anniversary tour. These rumours were confirmed by posts on the popular fanzine Stingus and on various other newswebsites such as De Standaard, Yahoo! etc.

In may 2007, Deutsche Grammophon releases the opera Welcome to the Voice composer Steve Nieve) . Sting is the main character :Dyonisos.

On February 11, 2007, Sting reunited with the other members of the Police as the introductory act for the 2007 Grammy Awards, singing "Roxanne", and subsequently announced The Police Reunion Tour, the first concert of which was held in Vancouver on May 28 in front of 22,000 delighted fans at one of two nearly sold-out concerts.