Stevie Wonder

Stevland Hardaway Judkins, later known as Stevie Wonder, was born on 13 May 1950 in Saginaw, Michigan, six weeks premature, a complication that led to excess oxygen exposure in his incubator causing retinopathy of prematurity, resulting in permanent blindness. He displayed extraordinary musical talent from early childhood, mastering piano, harmonica and drums largely by ear before age ten.

Wonder was signed to Motown Records in 1961 at age eleven, initially marketed as 'Little Stevie Wonder,' and achieved his first major hit in 1963 with the live recording 'Fingertips (Part 2),' making him, at twelve years old, the youngest artist to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart, an early breakthrough that established him as a genuine child prodigy rather than a novelty act.

As Wonder matured through his teens and into adulthood, he pushed for and eventually won greater creative control over his own recordings, negotiating a landmark contract with Motown in 1971 giving him full artistic control and ownership of his publishing, a significant achievement for any artist at the label and particularly consequential for the run of albums that followed.

Between 1972 and 1976 Wonder released what is widely regarded as one of the most extraordinary creative runs in popular music history, including Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness' First Finale and Songs in the Key of Life, albums combining sophisticated musicianship, innovative use of synthesizers, and socially conscious songwriting addressing issues including racism, poverty and spirituality, work that won him an unprecedented run of Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year three times within a four-year span.

Wonder became a significant civil rights and social justice figure alongside his musical career, writing 'Happy Birthday' (1980) as part of a sustained campaign advocating for the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a national holiday, a campaign that directly contributed to the holiday's eventual establishment, and continued using his platform for advocacy on issues including apartheid, disability rights and voter registration throughout subsequent decades.

Wonder has continued recording and performing across six decades, and remains one of the most honoured and influential musicians in popular music history, having won 25 Grammy Awards, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014, and continues to be cited as a direct influence on generations of subsequent musicians across R&B, soul, pop and hip-hop, his blindness never limiting, and arguably enhancing, an extraordinary body of musical innovation spanning production, composition and performance.