Unlikely pairings are things we enjoy sharing in Unieros blogs. It occurs when two seemingly different ethnic cultures or people come together to create something unique and inherently beautiful. Sting and Shaggy recently created such shareable content with the release of their collaborative new album called 44/876.

Sting, a British song writer and performer known for his year’s as front man for the rock band, The Police, and Shaggy a Jamaican dancehall artist, known for his hit song “It Wasn’t Me” are an unlikely pair for musical collaboration.

In a profile for NPR, it is said “Both musicians are U.S. immigrants: Shaggy moved from Jamaica to Brooklyn in the 1985 and fought in the first Gulf War in 1991 while Sting moved to the U.S. from his native England more than three decades ago.”

The album title called “44/876” aptly honors both their home country international calling codes – 876 is Jamaica and 44 is England.

The single from the album called “Don’t Make Me Wait” features Sting in his signature raspy voice with Shaggy reggae style vocals balances the song in a way that highlights their individual styles.

Have a listen to the single by Sting and Shaggy

The world may not have longed for this musical pairing but it is a good one. In a profile, on Rolling Stone, Sting spoke about his desire to find a reggae collaborator. They didn’t know each other personally but when they met they simply connected and got a long really well.

We could not ask for a better reason to cross cultures than that. The album released April 20, 2018.