Desert Rose (Sting song)
2000 single by Sting ft. Cheb Mami
"Desert Rose" is a song by British musician Sting featuring Algerian raï singer Cheb Mami, from Sting's sixth solo studio album, Brand New Day (1999). According to Sting, the lyrics have to do with "lost love and longing". Riding a wave of pre-9/11 interest in Latin and Arabic cultures, "Desert Rose" peaked at No. 2 in Canada, No. 3 in Switzerland, No. 4 in Italy, No. 15 in the United Kingdom, and No. 17 in the United States.
Background
In 1998, Sting had listened to one of Cheb Mami's albums, which prompted him to see Mami perform live in Bercy with Khaled, Rachid Taha, and Steve Hillage. After his experience at the concert, Sting wrote the instrumentation to "Desert Rose", which later informed the direction of the lyrics.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q679769. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1999 and 1998.
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This entry incorporates text from “Desert Rose (Sting song)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.