Fragile (song)

"Fragile"
Single by Sting
from the album ...Nothing Like the Sun
Released	1988
Format	7" 12"
Recorded	1987
Genre	Acoustic rock, jazz
Length	3:54
Label	A&M
Songwriter(s)	Sting
Producer(s)	Sting
Sting singles chronology
"Englishman in New York" (1988) "Fragile" (1988) "They Dance Alone (Cueca Solo)" (1988)
"Englishman in New York" (1988) "Fragile" (1988) "They Dance Alone (Cueca Solo)" (1988)

"Fragile" is a song written and performed by English musician Sting from his second studio album ...Nothing Like the Sun. Released as a single the following year, it placed to number 70 on the UK Singles Chart. Sung additionally in both Spanish and Portuguese under the titles "Fragilidad" and "Fragil", it appeared twice more on his 1988 EP variant of the album, Nada como el sol. The Spanish version features as a b-side to "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying".

The song is a tribute to Ben Linder, an American civil engineer who was killed by the Contras in 1987 while working on a hydroelectric project in Nicaragua.^[1]

In media

The song was featured in the 1992 Academy Award-winning documentary film The Panama Deception, about the U.S. invasion of Panama in December 1989.

"Fragile" was the opening song in Sting's ...All This Time concert, recorded on the evening of the September 11 attacks in 2001.

The song appears in the closing scenes of "Come from the Shadows", episode 59 of 21 Jump Street, the fourth episode of Season Four.

The song appears in the 1995 Oscar nominated documentary The Living Sea.^[2]

The song has found its way into the jazz repertoire and has been covered by numerous artists such as Pat Metheny, the Esbjörn Svensson Trio, and Simone Kopmajer.

Sting used the song "Fragile" to open his concert at the Bataclan in Paris on November 12, 2016 during its reopening after one year of closure following the November 2015 Paris attacks.

References