Brand New Day by Sting

Brand New Day, Sting's sixth solo album, came out on A&M in September 1999 and caught the former Police frontman and bassist in a restless, wide-roaming mood. He wrote every note and every word, and produced it with Kipper, building smooth pop rock with an ear cocked toward the rest of the world.

The calling card was "Desert Rose", a duet with the Algerian raï singer Cheb Mami, Sting's cool croon twined around Mami's soaring vocal. Pushed hard as the second single, it pulled the album up to number nine on the Billboard 200 and past 3.5 million sales in the US, and critics greeted the whole thing as a comeback. The Grammys went along: Best Pop Vocal Album, plus Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for the title track, his third win in that category.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.