Superstar Sting is as tight as he is wooden...

His voice is intact, as is his inability to connect emotionally. Superstar Sting is as tight as he is wooden.

He is a seventy-one-year-old superstar who comes on stage with a satisfied smile. Sting feels younger, not just because the star's tight, washed-out shirt fits perfectly. His voice has not been significantly affected by the ravages of time either. Even in the opening "Message in a bottle," he invites us to join in the chorus with an encouraging finger. There is no alternative to singing along.

When Sting was awarded the Polar Prize a few years ago, the motivation stated that he had dropped anchor in more musical ports than most other artists. One imagines a huge luxury yacht with several attendants. But of course, he has now served music creditably for half a century. Setting 16th-century poems to music with the lute or tackling fusion jazz, pop, reggae, Raï or most recently electronic dance music with this year's Swedish House Mafia collaboration "Redlight": nothing is too difficult for the man who has been described as one of the most loved and hated stars of our time.

The band during the tour (which is modestly called “My songs”) is tight and of course musically skilled. Sting himself stands in the middle of the stage or half-sits on a bar stool and coos over everything we get to hear. No one can take the power of many of the hits away from him. But there is also new stuff to be aired. He says that the whistle intro to “Its must be love” came to him while he was washing dishes. It sounds about as exciting. And he must have recorded the equally new “For her love” many times over in his career under other names.

The evening swings back and forth, between easily digestible sound porridge and songs you can’t help but love. For every fine “Fragile” there is a saucy “Brand New Day”. For every indisputable The Police classic we get a broken-down “Whenever I say your name”.

And so on.

The average age of the Globe tonight seems to be a little too high to recognize Juice Wrld's megahit "Lucid Dreams" which blends nicely into the original "Shape of my heart", a highlight. The response is not unexpectedly different when he later interprets Bob Marley.

An evening with Sting is never bad, nor is it particularly interesting. Despite many soft ballads, there is no real vulnerability in the music. A brilliant exception is during “What could have been” when scenes from the acclaimed series “Arcane” are projected behind the bassist’s bass. Perhaps because then real emotions arise that can be touched, let alone animated.

After barely a hundred minutes, he stands up from the bar stool and raises his arms to the cheers of the audience. There is no trace of sweat on the tight-fitting shirt.

As if he hasn’t really put in any effort.

(c) Expressen by Anders Dahlbom