Sting teams up with blues artist Fantastic Negrito in a new collaborative single “Undefeated Eyes”. The first new release of 2024 for both of these artists, sees the two Grammy winners put their respective talents to great effect. The two iconic artists spent the day together in Fantastic Negrito’s West Oakland studio, their distinctive voices perfectly complement each other as they tell an elegantly gritty yet full-of-life tale of misplaced trust and the sometimes-low points of relationships.

“Undefeated Eyes” cross pollinates psychedelia and soul into the blues that is accentuated by Fantastic Negrito’s soulful wisp blues with Sting’s raspy grit. The theme of “Undefeated Eye” plays into the human desire for relationships and seeking the answers of its dissolution. The verse opens up with the narrator’s admission of the mistakes made during their time together. While the need for closure is apparent, it’s also stated that things won’t be the same for the two of them. And while the damage has been done, the take from the whole experience is the relationship between the two whether apart or not, must keep moving strong and forward in a new direction. The end result of both ends of the collaboration is an exercise mutual talent working in-sync with each other to create an enduring sound that is both cumulative and moving, breathing life into a well-established sound and new context of a topic that has been covered extensively from other artists.

Photo Credit: Mehreen Rizvi