Sin City? More like Sting City.
Grammy-winning superstar Sting is heading to Las Vegas to launch a residency next year.
Sixteen performances of "Sting: My Songs" will take place at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, beginning May 22, 2020. Shows are also planned for June, August and September.
FILE - In a Jan. 25, 2018 file photo, Sting attends Spotify's Best New Artists 2018 Party at Skylight Clarkson Square, in New York. Sting is heading to Las Vegas to launch a residency next year. Sixteen performances of “Sting: My Songs” will take place at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, beginning May 22, 2020. Shows are also planned for June, August and September. (Photo by Amy SussmanInvisionAP, File)
"Visually, sound-wise, dancing — it's going to be a Vegas show. I'm really committed to that," Sting said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I am a little frightened and a little excited at the same time."
Tickets for the general public, starting at $59, go on sale May 3.
Sting said he's been offered a residency in Vegas in the past, but he felt it wasn't the right time: "I always thought, 'I'm not quite ready for that. I'm still a touring animal.' (Now) I'm ready."
Residencies in Vegas once were meant for acts heading into retirement or in the final stretch of their careers, but that's changed with contemporary artists going to the city to perform, from Jennifer Lopez to Lady Gaga.
Sting said he likes the idea of performing at a single venue every night, compared to traveling city-to-city on a normal tour.
"Being in one place is actually a different, spiritual vibe," he said. "Welcoming people into your house — that's basically what it's going to be. I'll be telling the story of my life through songs. I've had a long, interesting life and I can't wait."
Before he heads to Vegas, Sting has a string of projects in the works: He will tour the United Kingdom with Shaggy (they won the best reggae album Grammy this year for their collaborative album "44/876"); he has a number of solo shows in the United States and around the world; and he will release a new album, "My Songs," on May 24.
The album finds Sting re-shaping and re-imagining some of his biggest hits, from "Every Breath You Take" to "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free."
"We weren't treating the original recordings as holy relics or museum pieces ... we were just having fun with the songs," said the 67-year-old, adding that his voice is now "different to what it was 30, 40 years ago. It has more texture, a richness to it."
His song, "Shape of My Heart," will also appear on the new album. The tune has been sampled by a number of artists throughout the years, from rapper Nas to Grammy-winning R&B singer Monica to English singer Craig David, who collaborated with Sting when he re-worked the song in 2002.
The most famous version is Juice WRLD's "Lucid Dreams," one of the biggest hits of the last year.
"I'm always intrigued by that. I'm always pleased by what I hear because they hear something in that lovely, descending bass line that makes for reflection. That pleases me. And there have been some fabulous versions," Sting said of artists sampling "Shape of My Heart."
"I was very impressed by what he put on top of (my version)," he said of "Lucid Dreams" specifically. "It's a really good song."
TOKYO (AP) — The American envoy to the United Nations called Friday for countries armed with atomic weapons to pursue nuclear disarmament as she visited the atomic bomb museum in Nagasaki, Japan.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who became the first U.S. cabinet member to visit Nagasaki, stressed the importance of dialogue and diplomacy amid a growing nuclear threat in the region.
“We must continue to work together to create an environment for nuclear disarmament. We must continue to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons in every corner of the world,” she said after a tour of the atomic bomb museum.
“For those of us who already have those weapons, we must pursue arms control. We can and must work to ensure that Nagasaki is the last place to ever experience the horror of nuclear weapons,” she added, standing in front of colorful hanging origami cranes, a symbol of peace.
The United States dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroying the city and killing 140,000 people. A second attack three days later on Nagasaki killed 70,000 more people. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II and its nearly half-century of aggression in Asia.
Nagasaki Gov. Kengo Oishi said in a statement that he believed Thomas-Greenfield's visit and her first-person experience at the museum “will be a strong message in promoting momentum of nuclear disarmament for the international society at a time the world faces a severe environment surrounding atomic weapons.”
Oishi said he conveyed to the ambassador the increasingly important role of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in emphasizing the need of nuclear disarmament.
Thomas-Greenfield's visit to Japan comes on the heels of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's official visit to the United States last week and is aimed at deepening Washington's trilateral ties with Tokyo and Seoul. During her visit to South Korea earlier this week, she held talks with South Korean officials, met with defectors from North Korea and visited the demilitarized zone.
The ambassador said the United States is looking into setting up a new mechanism for monitoring North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Russia and China have thwarted U.S.-led efforts to step up U.N. sanctions on North Korea over its ballistic missile testing since 2022, underscoring a deepening divide between permanent Security Council members over Russia’s war on Ukraine.
She said it would be “optimal” to launch the new system next month, though it is uncertain if that is possible.
The U.N. Security Council established a committee to monitor sanctions, and the mandate for its panel of experts to investigate violations had been renewed for 14 years until last month, when Russia vetoed another renewal.
In its most recent report, the panel of experts said it is investigating 58 suspected North Korean cyberattacks between 2017 and 2023 valued at approximately $3 billion, with the money reportedly being used to help fund its weapons development.
The United States, Japan and South Korea have been deepening security ties amid growing tension in the region from North Korea and China.
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, shake hands during a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, shake hands during a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, right, speaks to Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, second right, as they wait for a meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, right, walk to meet Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, talk prior to a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, prepare to talk during a meeting Friday, April 19, 2024, at prime minister's office in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool)
