Sting's Voice Echoes in Bosphorus
By Ozge Yalin, Istanbul
Published: Friday, June 16, 2006
zaman.com

The first of the stars Istanbul has been waiting for appeared at Kurucesme Arena on Wednesday night.

The residents of Istanbul poured into the streets for Sting, a legend in rock music.

Despite the cool weather, music lovers queued up at the gate as cars jammed kilometers away from the place.

Sting’s son Joe Summer and his group Ficton Plane first took the stage at the concert at Besiktas Culture Center.

Summer was replaced by his father at 21.30. The time stopped as Sting appeared on the stage singing his “Message in a bottle.” The star’s fans aged between 10 and 50 sang along with him.

In addition to his “Shape of my heart” and “Englishman in New York”, the unforgettable records of the Police such as “Walking on the moon” and “So lonely” showed Sting is still a star despite the years that have passed.

Approximately 15,000 people listened to Sting’s Istanbul concert in the frame of his European tour. Egyptian Ahmet accompanied Sting for a short time with his darbuka (tomtom).

Five years ago, Sting invited Burhan Ocal to the stage at the concert he gave in Istanbul Jazz Festival.

The concert was also attended by famous people such as Yilmaz Erdogan, Mustafa Erdogan, Kenan Imirzalioglu, Sebnem Ferah, Kirac, Kenan Dogulu, Sertab Erener, Izel ve Mehmet Aslantug.

Sting, who made his appearance on the stage like a star falling from the sky, vanished again like a star in the darkness of the night. Pink Floyd’s founder Roger Waters, Group Alphaville and Lara Fabian are next.

Yesterday I was at Sting's concert in Novi Sad, Serbia. The concert was really great, but it barley lasted an hour and a half, without a single encore! 20.000 people were standing there, cheering for the band to come back on stage for at least one more song (Sting didn't perform MAD ABOUT YOU for example ?!), but the only ones who came out were the guys from the technical crew, gathering the cables & instruments.
Was it like that in Istanbul or any other concert in Eastern Europe?

I was in Bratislava 21th June and Sting performed 2 encores