Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer born Stevland Hardaway Morris in 1950 in Saginaw, Michigan. One of the most gifted and influential musicians in the history of popular music, he became a child star at Motown before achieving full artistic control in his twenties and producing a run of albums in the 1970s that stands as one of the most extraordinary creative periods any artist has ever sustained. Blind from shortly after birth, he signed to Motown at 11 and released 'Fingertips' as 'Little Stevie Wonder' at 12, a number one hit that made him the youngest artist to top the Billboard Hot 100. A series of pop singles through the 1960s — 'Uptight,' 'I Was Made to Love Her,' 'Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours,' 'For Once in My Life' — established him as one of Motown's most commercially reliable acts. Renegotiating his Motown contract at 21 to gain full artistic and financial control, he entered his Classic Period: *Music Of My Mind* (1972), *Talking Book* (1972), *Innervisions* (1973), *Fulfillingness' First Finale* (1974), and the masterpiece *Songs In The Key Of Life* (1976) constitute an unbroken run of socially conscious, harmonically sophisticated, rhythmically revolutionary soul, funk, and pop that remains without peer. He wrote, produced, and played virtually every instrument, incorporating synthesisers into R&B years before it became common practice. 'Superstition,' 'Living for the City,' 'Higher Ground,' 'Sir Duke,' 'I Wish,' 'Isn't She Lovely,' and 'As' are among dozens of enduring songs from this period. *Songs in the Key of Life* in particular — a double album running 105 minutes — is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums ever made. Later work including *Hotter Than July* (1980) and *In Square Circle* (1985) continued his commercial success, and his advocacy for Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a US federal holiday was a significant civil rights contribution. His influence on soul, R&B, pop songwriting, and synthesis-based production is immeasurable.