Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner CBE (born 2 October 1951), known professionally by his stage name Sting, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist, actor, and philanthropist. He was the principal songwriter, lead singer, and bassist for the new wave rock band the Police from 1977 to 1983, before launching a solo caree. He has included elements of rock, jazz, reggae, classical, new-age and worldbeat in his music.[1] As a solo musician and a member of the Police, he has received 16 Grammy Awards (his first in the category of best rock instrumental in 1980, for "Regatta de Blanc"), three Brit Awards, including Best British Male in 1994 and Outstanding Contribution in 2002,[2] a Golden Globe, an Emmy, and three Academy Award nominations for Best Original Song. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Police in 2003. In 2000, he received a star on the 
Hollywood Walk of Fame for recording. In 2003, Sting received a CBE from Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for services to music, and was made a Kennedy Center Honoree at the White House in 2014.
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.[3] In 2006, Paste ranked him 62nd of the 100 best living songwriters.[4] He was 63rd of VH1's 100 greatest artists of rock,[5] and 80th of Q magazine's 100 greatest musical stars of 20th century.[6] He has collaborated with other musicians, including "Rise & Fall" with Craig David, "All for Love", with Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart, and introduced the North African music genre raï to Western audiences by his international hit "Desert Rose" with Cheb Mami.
Sting married actress Frances Tomelty from Northern Ireland, on 1 May 1976. Before they divorced in 1984, they had two children: Joseph (born 23 November 1976) and Fuchsia Katherine ("Kate", born 17 April 1982). In 1980, Sting became a tax exile[100][101][102] in Galway
in Ireland. In 1982, after the birth of his second child, he separated
from Tomelty and began living with actress and film producer Trudie Styler. The couple married on 22 August 1992 in an 11th-century chapel in Wiltshire, south-west England.[103] Sting and Styler have four children: Brigitte Michael ("Mickey", born 19 January 1984), Jake (born 24 May 1985), Eliot Pauline (nicknamed Coco", born 30 July 1990), and Giacomo Luke (born 17 December 1995). Coco is singer and founder of the London group I Blame Coco. Giacomo Luke is the inspiration behind the name of Kentucky Derby-winning horse Giacomo.[104]
Sting said his children will not inherit his £180m fortune, fearing
his riches are "albatrosses round their necks", that "there won't be
much money left because we are spending it."[105] The Sunday Times Rich List of 2011 estimated Sting to be one of the 10 wealthiest people in British music.[106]Both of Sting's parents died from cancer in the 1980s (his mother in 1986 and his father in 1987). He did not attend either funeral, saying the media would be disrespectful to his parents.[107]
In 1995, Sting prepared for a court appearance against his former accountant who had misappropriated several million pounds of his money.[108] Sting owns several homes worldwide, including Lake House and its 60 acre estate near Salisbury, Wiltshire; a cottage in the Lake District; a New York City flat; a beach house in Malibu; a 600-acre (2.4 km2) estate in Tuscany, Italy;[109] and a flat on the Mall, and an 18th-century terrace house in Highgate.[110]
