‘It’s all about surprise.’ Sting and Shaggy’s One Fine Day festival is happening only in Philadelphia

The bromance that will bring Sting and Shaggy together for the One Fine Day music festival in Philadelphia (and only Philadelphia) on Sept. 9 at the Mann Center began with a song.

In 2018, the Jamaican rapper and singer was in Los Angeles working on an unfinished track called “Don’t Make Me Wait.” His manager, Martin Kierszenbaum — who also manages the former Police leader — heard it and thought: “This would be perfect for Sting.” Sting thought so, too.

The duo-to-be — who will perform at One Fine Day along with virtuoso bassist Thundercat, Jamaican rapper Koffee, New Orleans band Tank and the Bangas, Philly’s G. Love & Special Sauce, and others — didn’t know each other at the time.

But 45 minutes after first hearing the song, “Sting just walks into the studio, singing,” Shaggy said to The Inquirer, speaking via Zoom from New York. “He was like, ‘Shaggy, let’s do this.’ On that one session, we wound up laughing more than we were working.”

It went so well, Sting chimed in on Zoom from his home in Tuscany, that he immediately invited Shaggy to collaborate further.

“My first idea was that he would just guest on my album. But then I enjoyed his appearances so much that I said, ‘Let’s make this a joint project.’ And no regrets. We won a Grammy. And I think we made a great record.”

That record is 44 / 876, named for the country codes the buddies dial up when calling each other in England or Jamaica. It led to the pair serenading Queen Elizabeth on her 92nd birthday in 2018, and it won the best reggae album Grammy the next year.

When the Sting / Shaggy collab first went public, it puzzled pop music observers.

What’s self-serious, jazz-loving Sting doing with Shaggy, the reggae dance hall party starter known for playfully randy hits like “Boombastic” and “It Wasn’t Me”?

It turns out the popular artists that come from different genres complement one another.

“I’m a very, very cautious and careful composer of music,” said Sting, who is playing the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City on Sept. 3 in addition to One Fine Day.

“I sit gazing at my navel for days on end and carefully put things together very meticulously. And Shaggy is a much more spontaneous improviser. His ability to freestyle is something that I envy and value a great deal.”

“That natural ability to express himself immediately in rhyme, in rhythm. That’s genius for me,” he said, jokingly calling himself “stiff” in comparison. “He loosens me up.”

When the duo are working, Shaggy said, Sting’s attention to detail is apparent. “He’ll come up with an idea, and you’re like, ‘Whoa, this is hot!’ But then he’ll want to go over it 60 times. It’s like, ‘Bro, we could have been at lunch by now.’ ”

Shaggy, however, is no stranger to discipline. After moving from Kingston to New York with his mother at 18, he enlisted in the Marines and served in the Persian Gulf War.

He stresses that the duo have more in common than using snappy, one-word stage monikers. (Sting is Gordon Sumner; Shaggy was born Orville Burrell.)

“In Jamaica, the Police were one of the first foreign reggae bands,” Shaggy said. “And they were being played on the radio a lot, from ‘Roxanne’ all the way down. And then there’s a lot of calypso and reggae music in the U.K. So that’s where the connection was. And it wasn’t until I met Sting that I realized a lot of those songs were written in Jamaica.”

One Fine Day — named after a song that addresses the climate crisis on Sting’s 2016 album 57th & 9th — is in Philadelphia, Sting said, “because both Shaggy and I have very very strong support in the city. ... Philadelphia is the City of Brotherly Love! It’s the natural place to do this.”

Shaggy offers a different reason: “We really did it because we both like Philly cheesesteaks.”

One Fine Day, which will utilize both the TD Pavilion and Skyline stages at the Mann, also features Trinidadian soca group Kes, mariachi band Flor De Toloache, and Italian singer Giordana Angi.

The unexpected fest follows the still more improbable Com Fly Wid Mi, the Sting-produced 2022 Shaggy album born on a Oslo boat trip. “I said, ‘I’m going to swim in the fjord with the penguins,’ ” Sting recalled. “Shaggy said, ‘Jamaicans don’t swim in fjords, it’s too cold.’ ”

“While I was away, he was making hamburgers and drinking Red Stripes, singing along with a CD of Frank Sinatra. I’m hearing this in the water, and I’m thinking: He sounds pretty good.”

A light bulb went off. “He’s got the same range as Frank. He’s a baritone tenor. And swing music and reggae music aren’t that far apart. It’s rhythmic. Why not do an album of Sinatra covers with Shaggy singing in a reggae style?”

The results aren’t as strange as they might sound. “We got a lovely letter from [songwriter] Sammy Cahn’s widow,” said Sting. She said it was her favorite version of “Come Fly With Me.”

After that excursion, Sting said, One Fine Day is “the next illogical step.”

“It’s meant to be unlikely. Surprise is the element in any art that I desperately need. I want to be surprised, and I want to surprise people. It’s all about surprise.”

Shaggy has always felt a connection to Philadelphia through the city’s West Indian community, as well as his friendship with Patti LaBelle.

During an awards show in Monaco, he was once at a table with the Philly diva and Prince Rainier. “They served steak, and Patti went into her bag for her hot sauce,” said Shaggy, cracking himself up. “And then the hot sauce went around the table, including to the prince!”

Sting’s history in Philly goes back to 1978, when the Police — with guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland — played Grendel’s Lair on South Street, capacity 220. “We met an influential DJ who was a big supporter of ours,” he said, speaking of late WMMR-FM (93.3) rock jock Ed Sciaky.

Five years later, Synchronicity, whose menacing love song “Every Breath You Take” was written at James Bond creator Ian Fleming’s estate in Jamaica — brought the Police to 90,000 fans atop an August 1983 bill at JFK Stadium with Joan Jett, Madness, and R.E.M. Inquirer music critic Ken Tucker noted that Sting said, “It’s 98 degrees. That’s the temperature of blood.”

“I did?” Sting asked, laughing. “How erudite of me.”

At One Fine Day, Shaggy and Sting will close the daylong show together.

“We did a show in St. Lucia, and it was like a battle of the bands. Shaggy’s band was on stage with mine,” said Sting. “I would do a song and Shaggy would come on and mess it up, and then I would do the same for him. The evening will end with that mayhem.”