FINAL CENTURY & CENTURY START
This decade begins with an awaited publication of a new disc that does not come, 10 years it is necessary to wait, from Conversation Peace of 1995. Participation in charitable events, collaborations with other artists, but his awaited album "A Time To Love" finally appears. Accusations in 2001 of his ex-fiancée, Angela McAfee, of having being infected by Herpes, passes away of persons nearby and wanted by him as it was Syreeta Wright, ex-woman and collaborator in his epoch of 70 and good friend, his mother Lula Mae Hardaway, his brother Larry Hardaway, the death of Ray Charles, that of Gerald Levert, Luther Vandross, are certainly, negative years for the good music.
Stevie receives the notification on the part of Industry Association of America (RIAA) the certificate of 10 million sold units of the mythical double LP " Songs in the Key of Life ", be the chosen above mentioned disc also to be a part of the The US Library of Congress.
In the list of 2003 of the magazine " The Rolling Stone magazine " with 500 albums bigger of the whole history included four of Stevie Wonder, also in 2008 is considered by the magazine one of the ten best singers of all time. In 2004 there is included by the prodigious magazine in the position 15 of 100 best artists of Rock*Roll of all the times. The song " Love's in Need of Love Today ", the already classic one of the Songs in the Key of Life is used, along with Take 6, for the tribute to the heroes of the offense of September 11, 2001 and sung to duo in 2007 with Bono de U2 for the documentary movie Darfur Now, on the terrible catastrophe of Darfur, Sudan.
Stevie took contact and position(attitude) of the social and political situation of the country, interfering face to face in the conflicts of his generation.
Stevie met Johanan Vigoda, lawyer, who faced him in the worldly world of the music and the business, his symbiosis with him, they did that Stevie was obtaining a millionaire contract and a creative unimaginable freedom in those moments in a company as iron as it it was the Motown, Stevie said to him: " You do the best thing that you could with the business and with the money, I do the best thing that could to give the best product, like that any thing for that you ask will not be "unreasonable". The result was a contract for 7 years and thirteen million dollars.
His highly desired disc "A Time To Love", finally it goes out to the market in 2005, being again in the lists of successes and having a good success on the part of the criticism. Artists as: Alicia Keys, Gets ready, Mariah Carey, Tim Foreman (Switchfoot), Mary J. Blige, Kanye West, George Michael, Jermaine Jackson, Michael Jackson, Nik Kershaw, Anthony Kiedis (Network Hot Chili Peppers), India. Arie, Musiq Soulchild, John Legend, Jay Kay, Donell Jones, members of Jodeci, Maroon 5, the Neptunes, Dru Hill, Babyface, Prince, Beyoncé Knowles and Aaliyah do not renounce to affirm the influence that Stevie Wonder has supposed for his particular works.
THE 10'S
Start this new decade of suffering with the disappearance of another great friend and artist, Michael Jackson. Continuing in 2010 with a new tour through Europe and Japan and is named Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in Paris. In 2011 is inducted in the Apollo Theater Hall of Fame in New York and is part of the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Greece.
The lovers of the music we know that Stevie Wonder will always be a modality so much looking at the past, living in the present, as dreaming of the future.
INFANCY
Born on May 13, 1950, blind person of birth and third of a family of 6 sons, was born Steveland Morris, son of a Protestant shepherd and of a mother combatant, person whose(which) blindness forces him to change his way of communicating with the world, replacing the forms for notes , the light for the melodies and the outlines for rhythms, creating a musical full world of tones.
His parents, when the child Stevie was 5 years old, separated and it moved along with(near to) his mother and 5 brothers to Detroit, where they survive not without big efforts. His voice, out of the normal thing, does that his mother it joins the choir of the church; it is his first one I contact with the music. But his soul full of rhythm and swing did that it was not late in meeting others "black child" of the parish, following(continuing) the steps of "The Miracles" and other groups of Rythm and Blues ó Jazz, devoting itself to do numeritos in the streets of the quarter. There were 5 devilish creatures moving with a few frantic rhythms and interpreting a pagan music. This did that a feligresa was denouncing such an "aberration" and interrupted momentarily the musical beginning of Stevie, who had to be content to hear music in his favorite program of radio, sundown and to dream of a piano. The luck, in this case he smiled at the child Stevie, and did that a charity organization it was giving him a battery, which although it was not the dreamed piano, served him to start creating rhythms. It begins to touch with more frequency and takes part in a group with a cousin of his, the one who provides to him an audition for the record company Tamla-Motown, where it is immediately hired on having remained bewildered with this child of 11 years.
THE 60`S
The incipient house of discs Motown, created by blacks to produce black music in a white-hostile way, re-baptizes him as Little Stevie Wonder la Motown throws it and it will not be late in reaching his first success, "Fingertips" one dance song recorded in direct that makes him obtain his first disc of gold and to turn him into one small star. It decides the "little" of his stage name is suppressed and starts recording a series of discs produced by Clarence Paul.
At this age, 13 years, Stevie is already a musician and perfect composer and he starts hobnobbing with the big ones as Marvin Gaye, his voice was changing to him, him the mustache grew and he was waiting that in the concerts the girls will throw him telephone numbers. His mother worried that the music not he will neglect his studies and a private teacher hired so that he was traveling with him.
The successes in this epoch did not give to him of back and in spite of the work that was costing him eliminating the addition of "little Stevie" big topics arose as "uptight" or "I Was Made To Love Her".
THE 70`S
This is the most glorious epoch of Stevie, it came out definitively the addition of " Little Stevie " from the moment in which he married Syreeta Wright, which was employed at the distribution department of the Motown, collaborator at compositions of first Stevie's albums of the seventies, his marriage did not last very much, but they kept on being very good friends up to his death in 2006. After getting divorced of Syreeta, one married again another member of the Motown, Yolanda Simmons, with which it has 2 sons, Aisha Zakiya and Keita Sawandi.
In the summer of 73, the vehicle suffered an accident in the one that was traveling with a truck, remaining in comma and there were moments in which he was afraid for his life, it is said that during the period in comma only he was answering moving his fingers when his manager was singing to him to the ear the letter of Higher Ground , after a time he woke up, but it lost the sense of the smell, being provided(relying on) this way with only three of the five for the rest of his life, all this caused to him deep trace and changed to him the way of perceiving the reality that him makes a detour and of course his music.
From 1974 to 1977 Wonder it gained(earned) 14 Grammys including three " Albums of the year " continued by "Innervision", "Fullfillingness first finale" and "Songs in the Key of Life" , for many people one of the best discs of the music.
It was a period very rich in creativity and awards for Stevie, precursor in the employment of synthesizers and source of inspiration for the future musicians and of the epoch, it had parentheses in 78, which was been grateful in the collection of the Grammy to the best Album of the year by the winner of this year, "thank you Stevie for not extracting disc this year and allowing that it is me who should be this year the one that receives it ".
The songs of this epoch were full of experiences transcendental and next to the Gospel song, other floods of vitality, declarations(statements) of beginning and shape of a reality and confictos social. The decade finishes with a sound-track for the documentary "The secret life of the plants", which in spite of not having the commercial success of the previous disc, granted to him the platinum disc, although the movie did not appear to the public in general.
De 1974 a 1977 Wonder ganó 14 Grammys incluyendo tres "Albumes del año" seguidos por "Innervision", "Fullfillingness first finale" y "Songs in the Key of Life" , para muchos uno de los mejores discos de la música.
THE 80`S
The decade begins with a new work of Stevie Wonder, "Hotter Than July", it receives the 80 to rhythm of reggae thanks to his new hit, " master blaster " and is opened for a wider hearing, fights to achieve that the birth of the Nobel Prize(Nobel Prize winner) of the peace dead murdered Martin Luthero King, was considered to be a holiday in the EEUU. The decade ends up by being included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame en1989.
It does important collaborations as "Ebony and Evory" with Paul McCartney , "Just Good Friends " with Michael Jackson, along with Dionne Warwick, Elton John and Gladys Knight in "That's What Friends Are For" with that it obtains a Grammy and in "We are the world" for the Usa for Africa, the list would be almost
interminable.
In 1984 it throws "The woman in Red", for the sound-track of the same movie, obtaining a notable success, his hit "I Just Call To Say I Love You" wins Oscar for the best original song, and in Spain one of his songs, "Don`t drive drunk", it is a part of a successful campaign for General direction of Traffic.
It was not a very bountiful epoch of throwing of discs, in fact this will be the habitual thing until our days, but nevertheless, one big successes, "Musiquarium", with four unpublished topics of the highest level, together with a compilation of essential songs, "In Square Circle", where again he could slip in in the lists of success and "Characters", album almost unnoticed but still with this extract and touch "Wonder" of good taste.
THE 90`S
This stage is the darkest of this genius, after the creative explosion of years 70 and use of the same one in the 80. This decade begins with another sound-track , "Jungle Fever", movie of Spike Lee, devotes himself to helps charitable, appearances in his radio station, calm life in his country adoptive Ghana and it receives awards as the Grammy to the whole life.
"Conversation Peace" is a turned piece of news, with that it obtains 2 grammys, although it did not have a big commercial success, any more collaborations with Pavarotti and Friends, 98 Degrees in "True to Your Heart" for the movie Mulan, realized a world tour, of which the double album went out in direct "Natural Wonder" and the Motown edited several compilations, Song Review, Ballad Collection and At The Close Of A Century.
In the year 2007 it realizes his first tour in 10 years for the United States, it was something that his mother had wanted that it was doing , and that gave him forces to initiate a trip for the USA and Canada in this year 2008 and a continuation for Europe and Australia for September and October, 2008, homage keeps on being employed at the project of a disc to his mother Lula, "The Gospel Inspired By Lula", a disc that will not be a traditional gospel song, in him there will be able to be a song in Arab, in Hebrew, in Zulu, will include a wide bogey, as another titled project "Through the eyes of Wonder", songs inspired by his only perception and where it will express with his music how it is the world that surrounds us for a blind person. In February of 2009 was the second person to receive the prize awarded by the Library of Congress Gershwin for popular song. He has indicated its support for the already president democratic Barack Obama and shares his life with the designer of fashion Kai Milla, with which it has 2 more sons, there are already 10, last born in 2005, the same day of his birthday.
Has contributed the song "All About The Love Again" for the CD / DVD "Change Is Now: Renewing America's Promise" Obama for president, on March 2009 published his first official DVD entitled "Live At Last" of their performances last year in London and end this year, named a Messenger of Peace by the United Nations in recognition of his humanitarian work over the years.
Biography
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