Out today (May 19th) is Sting's new Duets collection, which features his teamups with the likes of Mary J. Blige, Herbie Hancock, Eric Clapton, Annie Lennox, Charles Aznavour, Mylène Farmer, Shaggy, Melody Gardot, Gashi and more. The album also includes the new, never-before-released song, “September” which pairs Sting with Italian icon Zucchero.
Last fall, Sting appeared on NBC's The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon to perform virtually with Gashi for the pair's new single, “Mama” and let the cat out of the bag about the upcoming collection: “Over the years, y'know, I’ve recorded many, many duets with some amazing people — Herbie Hancock. . . Eric Clapton. . . And so we just put them all together and said, 'Y'know, we should put this out.' And we've done a few new ones this year, y'know, with Melody Gardot and Gashi, and they sound pretty good.”
Featured on the set is Sting and Shaggy's “Don't Make Me Wait,” which kicked off the pair's Grammy Award-winning joint project, 44/876, with Sting telling us that the album started with the demo for their first single, “Don't Make Me Wait”: “Well, it wasn't really specified what it was for. I heard the demo, and y'know, I sort of recognized that it definitely had potential and agreed to sing on it. And then, I said, 'Y'know, it'd be nice if I did a little bit more than be your backup singer' (Shaggy and Sting laugh). But, there was really no game plan here, but we did enjoy each other's company, which is the whole point.”
