Why I admire Sting & want to hear him sing at Andrew Tan’s Marriott Grand Ballroom
On March 3, 16-time Grammy awardee Sting and Grammy award-winning instrumentalist Chris Botti will have an unforgettable oneday only Up Close and Personal concert at Megaworld/ Emperador founder Andrew Tan’s Resorts World Manila’s Marriot Grand Ballroom, the biggest ballroom in the Philippines, which opened last year. Congrats to music lover Andrew Tan and concert producer Francis Lumen for this event.
Sources told me that this Marriot Grand Ballroom will be set up theater style for 3,180 seats, with ticket prices ranging from P11,000 per ticket for Bronze seats, P17,000 for Silver seats, P28,000 for Gold seats, P34,000 for VIP seats to P40,000 each ticket for SVIP seats.
AUCTIONING OFF $4 MILLION WORTH OF ART ON FEB. 24
Not many rock or even pop musicians are knowledgeable in good quality art. Sting and his actress/film producer wife Trudie Styler are, for successfully auctioning off $4.19 million worth of art and some furniture on Feb. 24 at Christie’s London, which were the contents of one of their former homes in England, the nine-bedroom mansion called “Queen Anne’s Gate,” which they sold.
Sting and his wife have good taste in art, with works he sold in this auction including those by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, René Magritte, Gustav Klimt and contemporary artists Keith Haring, Chinese artist Zeng Chuanxing and Moscow-born artist Veronica Smirnoff.
WINES MADE BY STING ON HIS 900-ACRE TUSCAN ESTATE
Another surprise for me is Sting’s wise investment in real estate in different parts of the world, from Britain to California, New York and a beautiful wine-making property in Italy. His 900-acre vineyard in Tuscany, Italy has organic farms for olive oil, honey and vegetables; five cottages with bedrooms good for 50 people and which he rents out; a 15thcentury villa, a recording studio, a swimming pool, lakes and olive groves.
The Telegraph newspaper’s Nick Squires wrote on Feb. 18: “A robust red produced by the British rock star (Sting) on his country estate in Tuscany has been named as one of Italy’s finest 100 wines, placing him alongside centuries-old aristocratic winemaking dynasties such as the Frescobaldi and Antinori families.
“Not bad for a working-class boy who didn’t taste his first glass of wine until he was in his twenties.
“The wine, named Sister Moon after one of his songs, has been acclaimed by the organizers of OperaWine, a prestigious wine fair which will be held in Verona in April. The selection of reds and whites was made by critics from Wine Spectator, an authoritative American magazine.”
STING, TAN KAH KEE & BUFFETT NOT BEQUEATHING WEALTH TO KIN
I strongly share the conviction of singer Sting, Singapore’s 20th century “Rubber King” Tan Kah Kee and Warren Buffett on not bequeathing one’s wealth to their kids or kin.
My belief is based on my research on my late dad’s clan history in the Philippines of immigrant rags-toriches-to-rags-to-riches-to-rags for two centuries: If one’s kids, heirs or kin are capable, they have no need for inherited wealth and can rise in the world on their own merits; however, if one’s kin or heirs are lousy or crazy, they’d not only lose one’s fortune, they would also damage one’s reputation. I also wouldn’t want to deprive my kin of the incomparable excitement and sheer magic of working hard and working smart to amass self-made wealth.
Sting said two years ago to the Daily Mail newspaper: “‘I told them (his six children) there won’t be much money left because we are spending it! We have a lot of commitments. What comes in, we spend, and there isn’t much left... I certainly don’t want to leave them trust funds that are albatrosses round their necks.”
He continued: “They have to work. All my kids know that and they rarely ask me for anything, which I really respect and appreciate... Obviously, if they were in trouble I would help them, but I’ve never really had to do that. They have the work ethic that makes them want to succeed on their own merit.’
A PASSIONATE ACTIVIST
& PHILANTHROPIST
I have read so many news about Sting doing numerous concerts and other acts either for disaster relief, ecological projects or political causes.
For example, his 1980 song Driven to Tears is a strong criticism of people’s widespread apathy to world hunger. He participated in Bob Geldof’s Feed The World project in December 1984 and sang on Do They Know It’s Christmas? which eventually became the Live Aid concert in July 1985 at Wembley Stadium, where Sting sang Phil Collins and Dire Straits. On Nov. 2, 2012, Sting joined “Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together” to sing a version of Message in a Bottle to help in the fund-raising effort to help storm victims on the US East Coast that week; that concert reportedly raised $23 million.
With his wife Trudie Styler and Brazil’s indigenous Kayapo Indian tribal leader Raoni Metuktire, Sting established the Rainforest Foundation Fund to help save the rainforests and protect indigenous peoples there.
Can environmental groups in the Philippines suggest to eco-warrior Sting that he help awaken our society to the urgent need to save what remains of our rainforests here in our isles?
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