Sting & Shaggy at the Rooftop at Pier 97

Gordon "Sting" Sumner, from Newcastle, England, and now living between New York City and Malibu, California, has won 16 Grammy Awards as bassist of the Police and as a solo artist. Orville "Shaggy" Burrell grew up in Raetown, Jamaica, and is a reggae artist with 13 hit albums. Sting and Shaggy first performed together publicly at the 2018 Grammy Awards. Their joint CD, 44/786 (named after their respective country codes), was released on April 20, 2018.

Sting and Shaggy's tour brought them to the Rooftop at Pier 17 tonight, where threatening storms prompted the promoters to begin the show 15 minutes early. Sting sang and played bass for most of the set, Shaggy sang and toasted Jamaican style, and as they traded vocals and harmonized, they were backed by longtime Sting guitarists Dominic Miller and Rufus Miller, and drummer John Freese, plus Shaggy's keyboardist Kevon Webster and backing vocalists Melissa Musique and Gene Noble. From the start, Sting and Shaggy traded lyrics on Sting's "Englishman in New York" (with "Jamaica" subbed in a few times), and several times did mash-ups of their hits. The set also included eight songs from their collaborative album, including "Crooked Tree," during which Shaggy wore a judge's robes and wig and Sting wore a black-and-white-striped shirt representing a prisoner. The show was a departure for both Sting and Shaggy, with Shaggy toasting as Sting's hype man and Sting's distinctive tenor as backup on some of Shaggy's ribald lyrics, but somehow the chemistry clicked majestically for nearly two hours. The rain finally fell towards the end of the set, with many in the audience fleeing but many others soaking up the musical sunshine along with the rain, chanting the lyric "I dream of rain" during the encore of "Desert Rose."

Setlist:

1. Medley: Englishman in New York (Sting song)/Jamaican in New York (Shinehead cover)
2. 44/876
3. Morning Is Coming
4. Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic (The Police cover)
5. Medley: Oh Carolina (Shaggy song)/We'll Be Together (Sting song)
6. If You Can't Find Love(Sting song)
7. Medley: Love Is the Seventh Wave (Sting song)/One World (Not Three) (The Police cover)
8. Message in a Bottle (The Police cover)
9. Fields of Gold (Sting song)
10. Waiting for the Break of Day
11. Gotta Get Back My Baby
12. If You Love Somebody Set Them Free (Sting song)
13. Don't Make Me Wait
14. Dreaming in the U.S.A.
15. Crooked Tree
16. Medley: Walking on the Moon (The Police cover)/Get Up, Stand Up (The Wailers cover)
17. Medley: So Lonely (The Police cover)/Strength of a Woman (Shaggy song)
18. Medley: Roxanne (The Police cover)/Boombastic (Shaggy song)

Encore:

1. Desert Rose (Sting song)
2. It Wasn't Me (Shaggy song)
3. Every Breath You Take (The Police cover)