Bass, guitar, drums — Sting needs nothing more: tonight he plays Santa Cruz

It is the second and final Canary date: tonight Sting plays the Anexo Palmetum in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Yesterday he was on stage at the Gran Canaria Arena in Las Palmas.

After this the tour moves on to Portugal.

Both concerts belong to the world tour «Sting 3.0», which the British musician has been playing for some years. The name says it: this is about stripping things back.

Three musicians, no trimmings

Instead of a large band, Sting takes the stage with a power trio. Alongside him on bass are the guitarist Dominic Miller, a long-standing collaborator, and the drummer Chris Maas, known for his work with Mumford & Sons and Maggie Rogers.

The line-up has consequences for the sound. Without strings, without a horn section, without bombast, what remains is the core of the songs — and that moves closer to what Sting was doing in the late seventies with The Police, when he also played in a trio.

The configuration is not economising; it is a return.

New recordings have come out of this phase: the live album «Sting 3.0 Live» (2025) and the single «I Wrote Your Name (Upon My Heart)».

What will be played

According to the promoters' announcement, the programme draws on the best-known songs from both phases of his career — the titles named are «Englishman in New York», «Roxanne», «Fields of Gold» and «Every Breath You Take». Alongside these come lesser-known pieces from a repertoire spanning more than four decades.

What the setlist actually looks like on any given night is decided on stage; these details come from the announcement, not from a review of the concert.

The man behind the name

Sting was born Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner in 1951 in Wallsend, in the north-east of England. He became known as bassist and singer of The Police, before beginning a solo career in the mid-eighties that led him through rock, pop, jazz, world music and lute music.

The tally: 17 Grammys and more than a hundred million records sold, counting The Police and his solo work together. That at 74 he is still undertaking a world tour — and leaving the most elaborate stage machinery at home — is remarkable enough.

Two evenings, two islands

That an artist of this stature plays two concerts in the Canaries is not a given. Many world tours stop at most in Madrid and Barcelona.

Island geography means effort for equipment, crew and logistics — that it adds up for two consecutive evenings says something about the size of the audience here.

For residents and visitors who are in Santa Cruz tonight, it is the last chance of this tour on the islands.