A night of timeless hits: Sting strips it down, turns it up at 3.0 World Tour in Singapore

In a time of insanely huge pop musical ensembles, and enough back-up dancers to pack an entire MRT train, it is refreshing to go back to the basics. 

And sometimes, all we need is a simple setup for a transformative night-out, especially when it features 17-time Grammy Award-winner Sting. 

The Singapore leg of the Sting 3.0 World Tour, which was held on Tuesday (Sep 23) at the Arena @ Expo, felt more like Sting acquainting fans with his “new” three-piece band (hence the name “3.0”). 

Not that the other two members – long-time collaborator and guitarist Dominic Miller (the man behind that iconic riff in Shape Of My Heart) and drummer Chris Maas, who also plays for Mumford & Sons – needed much introduction.

Still, it has been a couple of years since the Englishman was in Singapore – the most recent being his solo concert at The Star Theatre in 2023, and with The Police in 2008 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium for a reunion tour. 

As Maas hit those high-hat patterns to the opening track Message In A Bottle, there was Sting in that rock power stance, bass guitar in hand, and signature fitted tee and skinny jeans on his lean frame. 

While his fans here have sprouted 50 shades of grey hair, the 73-year-old frontman himself seemed to defy age by retaining that enviable tenor range, and yoga-honed musculature and stamina.

Over the next two hours and a setlist of 20 songs, every little thing the Brit superstar did was magic, especially when he revealed the inspiration behind one of his signature songs, Fields Of Gold – and invited us to tea.

“If you come to Stonehenge, come down the hill a couple of miles and knock on my door for a cup of tea," he told the appreciative crowd. "The nice thing about our house is, it's surrounded by fields of barley. Around this time, it looks like fields of gold." 

Not sure how the missus would take to strangers knocking on their door because he probably says that at every concert.

Perhaps still recovering from one of the hottest summers in recent years in Japan – the trio’s previous stop before coming to our shores – there was minimal banter from the usually chatty frontman.  

No matter because the setlist was enough, featuring hits from The Police era such as Every Breath You Take, Wrapped Around Your Finger, Driven To Tears, and Walking On The Moon, as well as from his solo career including Englishman In New York, Mad About You, Why Should I Cry For You?, and Shape Of My Heart, as well as the fairly new I Wrote Your Name (Upon My Heart).

Despite straining to hit those high notes on If I Ever Lose My Faith In You, the fans didn't lose faith in him at all, singing and clapping along. 

Speaking of the fans, don’t let the forehead-perched progressive glasses in the audience fool you. This was a crowd that was there to party and they’d fight you with every breath they take if you so much as ask them to return to their seats. Such was their enthusiasm you’d think they’d purposely over-caffeinated to stay up beyond their usual bedtime.

By the time your ears picked up the strains of Algerian folk music and Cheb Mami’s haunting vocals in Desert Rose, and the relatable King Of Pain, people were up on their feet and swaying along.

The trio topped off the night with The Police hit Roxanne, with Sting instigating a "Roxanne, Roxanne, oh" singalong, which the audience gladly obliged.

With a switch of bass for an acoustic guitar for the encore, Sting wound down the crowd with the tender Fragile – re-popularised recently by the Emmy-winning TV series Adolescence – and ended the concert nary past 10pm. 

A perfectly good night for all ages.