75th birthday
Stevie Wonder, the child prodigy of the Soul
Stevie Wonder is considered one of the most influential visionaries of soul and funk. On May 13th he turns 75 and can look at a fantastic record of his art.
The music icon Stevie Wonder, born on May 13, 1950, started as Stevland Hardaway Musik-icon Stevie Wonder on May 13, 1950. Despite his physical restriction-shortly after his birth he lost the eyesight-he made a name for himself as a singer and multi-instrumentalist in the R&B and soul scene.
Stevie Wonder: First record contract at the age of eleven
At the age of eleven, he signed his first record contract with the Motown label in 1961, whose enthusiastic boss Berry Gordy also gave him the right artist name. The following year, the freshly baked “Little Stevie Wonder” first recorded an album with cover songs by his idol Ray Charles and another with first compositions. A album published in 1963 with live recordings of its first concerts was entitled “The Twelve Year-Old Genius” and promptly catapulted the highly gifted boy to the top of the US charts for the first time.
At 18, Stevie Wonder began to have increasingly influence on the arrangements of his compositions and to develop his own style, which then flowered in the beginning of the 1970s. On albums such as “Talking Book” (1972), “Innervisions” (1973) or “Songs in the Key of Life” (1976), the child prodigy, which has grown up, brought a breath of fresh air into the soul and radio music that had been on the spot. He succeeded not least through the avant -garde use of new electronic instruments such as the synthesizer.
Career highlight with “I just called to say i love you”
Even if he experienced the culmination of his commercial success in the early 1980s with Oscar -winning super hits such as “I just called to say i love you” and duets with colleagues like Michael Jackson or Paul McCartney, the criticism largely agreed that the later works of the music genius remain significantly behind his possibilities. After 1987, Stevie Wonder increasingly withdrew and has only released two albums since then, the last of them in 2005.
Father of nine child children
Nevertheless, the musician is still regularly on stage on smaller tours and selected events. Most recently, he was seen on May 5, 2025 together with the US superstar Usher at the opening of the Met Gala in New York. The artist, who was awarded a fabulous 22 Grammys, was accompanied by his wife Tomeka Robyn Bracy and one of his nine children, the last of whom was born in 2014. Even in his private life it should still not be boring to the former Munder boy of the Soul.
Spotonnews
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Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
