Stevland Hardaway Morris, known as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. A prominent figure in popular music during the second half of the 20th century, Wonder is one of the most successful songwriters and musicians. His use of synthesizers and further electronic musical instruments during the 1970s reshaped the conventions of R&B. Wonder has sold over 100 million records worldwide.
About Stevie Wonder in brief
Stevland Hardaway Morris, known as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. A prominent figure in popular music during the second half of the 20th century, Wonder is one of the most successful songwriters and musicians. His use of synthesizers and further electronic musical instruments during the 1970s reshaped the conventions of R&B. He is the tied-record holder for the most Album of the Year wins, with three. Wonder has sold over 100 million records worldwide. He has won 22 Grammy Awards. He was the first Motown artist and second African-American musician to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song, for the 1984 film The Woman in Red. In 2009 he was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace. In 2014, he was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Wonder was born in Saginaw, Michigan, on May 13, 1950, the second of two children born to Lula Mae Hardaway and Calvin Judkins, and the third of Hardaway’s five children. He was born six weeks premature which, along with the oxygen-rich atmosphere in the hospital incubator, resulted in retinopathy of prematurity, a condition in which the growth of the eyes is aborted and causes the retinas to detach, so he became blind. When Wonder was four, his mother divorced his father and moved with her children to Detroit, Michigan. He began playing instruments at an early age including piano, harmonica, and drums. He formed a singing partnership with a friend; calling themselves Stevie Fitzgerald and John, they played on street corners and occasionally at parties and dances.
In 1961, aged 11, Wonder sang his own composition, Ronnie White of the Miracles; White then took Wonder and his mother to an audition at Motown, where Wonder was signed to Motown’s Tamla label. Because of Wonder’s age, Clarence Paul gave him the name ‘Little Stevie’ because he drew him up as a child. In 1963, the single ‘Fingertips’ was a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 when Wonder was 13, making him the youngest artist ever to top the chart. In 1979, Wonder made use of the early music sampler Computer Music Melodian through his composition of the soundtrack album ‘The Secret Life of Plants’ It was also his first digital recording, which Wonder used for all subsequent recordings. Wonder’s 1970s albums are widely regarded by writers as very influential, as his pioneering stylistic approach to his music helped shaping the sound of pop music in the following decade. His works Innervisions, Fulfillingness’ First Finale and Songs in the Key of Life all won the Grammy Award for Album of. the Year, making he the only artist to have won the award with three consecutive album releases. Wonder 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 United States.
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This page is based on the article Stevie Wonder published in Wikipedia (as of Jan. 09, 2021) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
