Whenever I Say Your Name

Album: Sacred Love (2003)
Charted: 60
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Songfacts®:

  • This duet with Mary J. Blige is the second single from Sting's seventh solo album. Blige did not originally include the song on her own release, Love & Life, but it was featured on that album's international re-release.
  • This won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals in 2004 against "Can't Hold Us Down" (Christina Aguilera and Lil' Kim), "La Vie En Rose" (Tony Bennett and k.d. Lang), "Gonna Change My Way of Thinking" (Bob Dylan and Mavis Staples), and "Feel Good Time" (Pink and William Orbit).
  • Will.i.am did a remix of this featuring The Black Eyed Peas.
  • Sting wrote this song specifically for Mary J. Blige after the two performed together at the My VH1 Music Awards a few years before. He told Grammy Magazine: "Mary J. Blige was the right singer to sing this duet. The song is about finding solace in the world through love, through finding that one person. 'Whenever I say your name, I'm already praying.' That's not just romantic gobbledygook, it's real. If you really love somebody, it's a religious experience when you're with them, when you think of them and when you speak to them. Certainly the only connection I have with religion apart from music is this sense of love with someone else. So Mary and I are playing these roles, a relationship that was co-dependent and necessary. And she is just so passionate that it brought passion out in me. I'm not the most passionate person - I'm English! We find it very difficult to express passion, so we need some help."

Comments: 1

  • Julie from LondonPure joy -Sting with Mary J Blige - it transports me, makes me move to the gospel rhythm- heaven!! Thank you for the info - Sting is such a genius!
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