Sacred Love

Sacred Love is the seventh studio album by the English musician Sting. The album was released on 29 September 2003. The album featured smoother, R&B-style beats and experiments collaborating with hip-hop artist Mary J. Blige and sitar player Anoushka Shankar. Some songs like "Inside" and "Dead Man's Rope" were well received, and Sting had experimented with new sounds, in particular the more rock-influenced "This War".

Sacred Love received positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success, peaking at number three in the US and UK. It would be Sting's last album of original material until The Last Ship (2013).

Background

Sting adapted the first quatrain of William Blake's Auguries of Innocence for the first four sung lines of "Send Your Love".

Sting's collaboration with Blige, "Whenever I Say Your Name", won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals at the 46th Grammy Awards in 2004. The first single "Send Your Love" was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, but it lost to "Cry Me a River" by Justin Timberlake. the track is produced by The Avener.

Track listing

Personnel

Sting – vocals, keyboards, guitars, bass (1–10, 12), Turkish clarinet
Kipper – keyboards, programming, backing vocals
David Hartley – piano and choir arrangements
Jason Rebello – acoustic piano, Rhodes electric piano
Jeff Young – Hammond organ
Dominic Miller – guitars
Vicente Amigo – flamenco guitar (2)
Anoushka Shankar – sitar (9)
Danny Dunlap – bass (11)
Christian McBride – double bass
Manu Katché – drums
Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
Rhani Krija – percussion
Valerie Denys – castanets
Aref Durvesh – tabla
Levon Minassian – duduk
Clark Gayton – trombone
Chris Botti – trumpet
Jacqueline Thomas – cello
Mary J. Blige – lead vocals (3)
Katreese Barnes – backing vocals
Ada Dyer – backing vocals
Lance Ellington – backing vocals
Donna Gardier – backing vocals
Joy Rose – featured and backing vocals
Bahija Rhapl – ethnic vocals
Choeur de Radio France – choir
Philip White – associate chorus master

Technical credits

Simon Osborne – recording, mixing
Steve Miller – mix engineer (11)
Peter "Hopps" Lorimer – assistant engineer
Donal Hodgson – Pro Tools engineer and programming
Claudius Mittendorfer – technical assistant
Charlie Paakkari – technical assistant
Rodolphe Plisson – technical assistant
Dave Audé – remixing and additional production (11)
Chris Blair – stereo mastering
Peter Mew – 5.1 mastering
Danny Quatrochi – personal technician
Recorded at Studio Mega (Paris, France); The Hit Factory (New York City, New York); Capitol Studios (Hollywood, California).
Mastered at Abbey Road Studios (London, UK).

Production credits

Martin Kierszenbaum – A&R
Andrea Ruffalo – A&R coordinator
Tam Fairgrieve – production manager
Richard Frankel – package design
Paolo Roversi – photography
Kathryn Schenker – management

Charts

Weekly charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"

!scope="col"|Chart (2003–2004)

!scope="col"|Peak<br />position

!scope="row"|Japanese Albums (Oricon)

|align="center"|10

!scope="row"|Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)

|align="center"|5

Year-end charts

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

!Chart (2003)

!Position

|align="left"|Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)

|45

|align="left"|Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)

|52

|align="left"|Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)

|27

|align="left"|French Albums (SNEP)

|112

|align="left"|German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)

|42

|align="left"|Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)

|89

|align="left"|Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)

|19

|align="left"|UK Albums (OCC)

|87

|align="left"|US Billboard 200

|122

|align="left"|Worldwide Albums (IFPI)

|34

!Chart (2004)