Stevie Wonder – Award Winning Singer, Writer, Instrumentalist – born May 13, 1950

Stevie Wonder (born May 13, 1950, Saginaw, Michigan, U.S.) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, a child prodigy who developed into one of the most creative musical figures of the late 20th century.

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By the time he was 10, his singing and other musical skills were known throughout his neighborhood, and when the family moved to Detroit, impressed adults made his talents known to the owners of Motown Records, who gave him a recording contract when he was age 12.

His early hits included “Fingertips,” “Uptight (Everything’s All Right)” “For Once in My Life,” “My Cherie Amour,” “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours,” and “If You Really Love Me.” He undertook the study of classical piano, and later, music theory, and beginning in 1967, he began writing more of his own material. In the early 1970s, Wonder toured with the Rolling Stones and had major hits with the songs “Superstition” and “You are the Sunshine of My Life.”

In the mid-70s, his album “Songs in the Key of Life” topped the charts for 14 weeks. Over the years Stevie Wonder has garnered 25 Grammy Awards, as well as the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996. He collected an Academy Award for the 1984 hit “I Just Called to Say I Love You” from the film The Woman in Red. In 1989, he was inducted into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame. In 1999, Stevie became the youngest honoree of the Kennedy Center Honors. He was inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 1983, and in 2004 he won the Johnny Mercer Award in recognition of a lifetime of outstanding creative work.

He successfully spearhead a movement to create a national holiday recognizing the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a celebration he sang about in the track “Happy Birthday” from Hotter Than July. (“Happy Birthday” became a major U.K. hit as well, reaching No. 2.)

Wonder had dedicated his Oscar win to anti-apartheid activist/future president Nelson Mandela and had performed on the No. 1 charity singles “We Are the World,” to raise money for famine relief in Africa, and “That’s What Friends Are For,” with Warwick, Elton John and Gladys Knight, benefiting the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR).

Wonder has also been a longtime advocate for improving services for the blind and those with disabilities. In connection with the International Day of Persons With Disabilities, he was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace in 2009.

In June 2013, Wonder continued his advocacy work when he announced he would make good on a promise to perform a concert in Marrakech for negotiators from the World Intellectual Property Organization when they agreed on an international treaty providing blind and visually impaired individuals around the world with more access to books.

In 2005, the Library of Congress added Stevie Wonder’s 1976 double album “Songs in the Key of Life” to the National Recording Registry.

SOURCE: Library of Congress, Brittanica, Biography