Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris (/ˈstiːvˌlənd/; né Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include R&B, pop, soul, gospel, funk, and jazz. A virtual one-man band, Wonder's use of synthesizers and other electronic musical instruments during the 1970s reshaped the conventions of contemporary R&B. He also helped drive such genres into the album era, crafting his LPs as cohesive and consistent, in addition to socially conscious statements with complex compositions. Blind since shortly after his birth, Wonder was a child prodigy who signed with Motown's Tamla label at the age of 11, where he was given the professional name Little Stevie Wonder.
Stevie Wonder
- Stevland Hardaway Morris
- Little Stevie Wonder
- Singer
- songwriter
- musician
- record producer
1961–present
9
- Lula Mae Hardaway (mother)
- Vocals
- keyboards
- harmonica
- drums
- harpejji
Wonder's single "Fingertips" was a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963, at the age of 13, making him the youngest solo artist ever to top that chart. Wonder's critical success was at its peak in the 1970s. His "classic period" began in 1972 with the releases of Music of My Mind and Talking Book, the latter featuring "Superstition", which is one of the most distinctive and famous examples of the sound of the Hohner Clavinet keyboard. His works Innervisions (1973), Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974) and Songs in the Key of Life (1976) all won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, making him the only artist to have won the award with three consecutive album releases. Wonder began his "commercial period" in the 1980s; he achieved his biggest hits and highest level of fame, had increased album sales, charity participation, high-profile collaborations (including with Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson), political impact, and television appearances. Wonder has continued to remain active in music and political causes.
Wonder is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with sales of over 100 million records worldwide. He has won 25 Grammy Awards (the most by a male solo artist) and one Academy Award (Best Original Song, for the 1984 film The Woman in Red). Wonder has been inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is also noted for his work as an activist for political causes, including his 1980 campaign to make Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a federal holiday in the U.S. In 2009, he was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace, and in 2014, he was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Early life
Wonder was born Stevland Hardaway Judkins in Saginaw, Michigan, on May 13, 1950, the third of five children born to Lula Mae Hardaway,[6] and the second of Hardaway's two children with Calvin Judkins.[7] He was born six weeks premature, a condition that, along with the oxygen-rich atmosphere in the hospital incubator, resulted in retinopathy of prematurity, a disease that aborts eye growth and often causes the retinas to detach, and that left him blind.[8][9]
When Wonder was four, his mother divorced his father and moved with her three children to Detroit. Wonder attended Whitestone Baptist Church, where he sang in the choir and became a soloist at age eight.[10][11] His mother later rekindled her relationship with her first child's father (whose surname was also coincidentally Hardaway)[7] and changed her own name back to Lula Hardaway, going on to have two more children.
He began playing instruments at an early age, including piano, harmonica, and drums. He formed a singing partnership with a friend; calling themselves Stevie and John, they played on street corners and occasionally at parties and dances.[12]
When Stevie was signed by Motown in 1961, his surname was legally changed to Morris, which (according to Lula Mae Hardaway's authorized biography) was an old family name. Berry Gordy was responsible for creating the stage name of "Little Stevie Wonder".[13]
Wonder attended Fitzgerald Elementary School in Detroit.[14] After his first album was released, The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie (1962), he enrolled in Michigan School for the Blind in Lansing, Michigan.[15][16]
Personal life
Marriages and children
Wonder has been married three times. He was married to Motown singer-songwriter and frequent collaborator Syreeta Wright from 1970 until their amicable divorce in 1972. From 2001 until 2012 he was married to fashion designer Kai Millard.[141] In October 2009, Wonder and Millard separated; Wonder filed for divorce in August 2012.[142] In 2017 he married Tomeeka Bracy.[143]
Wonder has nine children with five women.[144] Wonder's first child's name is not publicly known. They were born to Yolanda Simmons, whom Wonder met when she applied for a job as secretary for his publishing company.[145] Simmons gave birth to Wonder's daughter Aisha Morris on February 2, 1975.[146][147] After Aisha was born, Wonder said "she was the one thing that I needed in my life and in my music for a long time".[145] Aisha was the inspiration for Wonder's hit single "Isn't She Lovely?" She is now a singer who has toured with her father and accompanied him on recordings, including his 2005 album A Time to Love. Wonder and Simmons also had a son, Keita, in 1977.[148]
In 1983, Wonder had a son named Mumtaz Morris with Melody McCulley.[149][150] Wonder also has a daughter, Sophia, and a son, Kwame, with a woman whose identity has not been publicly disclosed.[148] Wonder has two sons with second wife Kai Millard Morris. The elder is named Kailand, and he occasionally performs as a drummer on stage with his father. The younger son, Mandla Kadjay Carl Stevland Morris, was born on May 13, 2005 (his father's 55th birthday).[141]
Wonder's ninth child, his second with Tomeeka Robyn Bracy, was born in December 2014, amid rumors that he would be the father to triplets.[151] This turned out not to be the case, and the couple's new daughter was given the name Nia,[152] meaning "purpose" (one of the seven principles of Kwanzaa).[151]
Family and health
On May 31, 2006, Wonder's mother Lula Mae Hardaway died in Los Angeles at the age of 76.[153] During his September 8, 2008, UK concert in Birmingham, he spoke of his decision to begin touring again following his loss: "I want to take all the pain that I feel and celebrate and turn it around."[154]
At a concert in London's Hyde Park on July 6, 2019, Wonder announced that he would be undergoing a kidney transplant in September.[1]
Religion and politics
Wonder has been a longtime Baptist affiliated with black churches.[155][156][157] He was introduced to Transcendental Meditation through his marriage to Syreeta Wright.[158] Consistent with that spiritual vision, Wonder became vegetarian, and later a vegan, singing about it in October 2015 on The Late Late Show with James Corden during the show's "Carpool Karaoke" segment.[159][160][161]
Wonder joined Twitter on April 4, 2018, and his first tweet was a five-minute video honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Dozens of famous personalities were rounded up in the video, which was titled "The Dream Still Lives". Each person involved shared their dream, calling back to King's popular speech in 1963. Wonder's first tweet took the Internet by storm, and he also encouraged viewers to share their own videos about their dreams with the hashtag #DreamStillLives.[162]
Awards and recognition
Grammy Awards
Wonder has won 25 Grammy Awards,[53] as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996.[163] He is one of only four artists and groups who have won the Grammy for Album of the Year three times as the main credited artist, along with Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon, and Taylor Swift. Wonder is the only artist to have won the award with three consecutive album releases.
