Stevie Wonder as a Musical Icon

He wasn’t yet in Kindergarten when he was given his first musical instrument, a harmonica. He often played the wind instrument during the early days of his extensive and rewarding career.

His mother, Lula Hardaway, recounted some of the childhood experiences that Stevie and she lived through in her 2007 book Blind Faith: Miraculous Journey of Lula Hardaway, Stevie Wonder’s Mother. As she shared in her book, young Stevie was taken to faith healers as a child in desperate attempts to have him gain his physical vision. Despite his mother’s efforts, the attempts did not produce the physical results she sought

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Stevie Wonder’s Inner Vision and Talent

What Stevie always did and continues to have is an amazing inner vision and talent. Both launched him onto the national landscape when he was only 11 years old. At the tender age of 11, Stevie signed his first major recording contract with Motown Records, the top rhythm and blues musical production house in the country at the time. Due to a previous family move, Stevie didn’t have far to go to reach Motown’s offices as Lula had moved her children to Detroit by then.

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No one can forget the legendary performance that Stevie Wonder gave at the historic Apollo Theatre in 1962. He was known as “Little Stevie Wonder” during those days. He performed as a part of Berry Gordy’s Motown Revue. Other Motown artists who performed at the Apollo that same year were Diana Ross and the Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Temptations and the Contours. Harmonica in hand, he would awe and woo audiences until his talent and energy brought them to their collective feet and sent them into feverish rounds of applause.
Grammy Awards and Other Acclaim for Stevie Wonder

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A year later in 1963, Stevie Wonder enjoyed his first number one record on the billboard charts with his song “Fingertips”. Next came his album “Uptight” which earned him the number one spot on rhythm and blues song charts and the number three spot on Billboard’s pop charts. In 1970, Stevie married for the first time. He married another songwriter by the name of Syreeta Wright. They lived as husband and wife for two years.

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1974 was the year that Stevie Wonder garnered his first of several Grammy Awards. A year later in 1975 he became father to a daughter named Aisha. To celebrate his daughter’s birth, he penned and recorded the song “Isn’t She Lovely”. He also negotiated the highest musical contract for any recording artist up to that point when he signed a $13 million recording deal with Motown on August 15, 1985. One of the important features of the agreement was that Stevie would have complete creative and artistic control for his works. He had taken a giant leap forward as a business man for himself and other artists coming up behind him.

September 1976 he released his highly respected album “Songs in the Key of Life”. If he could have possibly have turned back before, he certainly couldn’t turn back now. Hit songs on the album include “I Wish” and “Sir Duke”. Other albums written and recorded by Stevie Wonder are “Talking Book”, “Inner Visions”, “Hotter Than July”, “Conversation Peace” and “A Time To Love”.
President Barak Obama, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Stevie Wonder

Over the duration of his career, Stevie Wonder has won 25 Grammy Awards. He has had 12 albums and 34 songs reach the Top Ten on Billboard’s Charts. He has also received the Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In the 1980s, the artist campaigned to make Civil Rights Leader, humanitarian and social activist, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday a national holiday. He wrote and recorded the song “Happy Birthday” on his “Hotter Than July” album to strengthen efforts to observe Dr. King’s birthday. On January 20, 1986 the first official national holiday commemorating Dr. King’s birthday was observed across the United States of America.

February 2009, President Barak Obama presented Stevie Wonder with the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. The President noted that in addition to Stevie Wonder’s numerous musical and social achievements, his song “You and I” was his wife Michelle and his wedding song. Today Stevie Wonder continues to tour and perform. He is married to Kia Miller Morris, a respected fashion designer.

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