Stevie Wonder

It’s an immense privilege to join such a remarkable roster of musicians and composers. I am touched to receive this honor, and look forward to creating music for the celebration.
—Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder is without question one of the great personalities in music history. His early years were with Motown, which signed him up as "Little Stevie Wonder" when he was 11 and released early hits “Fingertips,” “Uptight (Everything’s All Right)” “For Once in My Life,” “My Cherie Amour,” and “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours." Wonder studied classical piano and music theory, and went on to create a remarkable musical legacy that introduced new electronic sounds and instrumentations, and distinguished his music from everything else on the pop music landscape.

Over the years, Wonder has garnered 25 Grammy Awards, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and an Academy Award for “I Just Called to Say I Love You” from the film "The Woman in Red." He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and became the youngest person to receive a Kennedy Center Honor. In 2004, he won the Johnny Mercer Award for a lifetime of outstanding creative work.

In 2005, the Library of Congress added Wonder’s 1976 double album "Songs in the Key of Life" to the National Recording Registry. A special feature of the 2009 Gershwin Prize celebration was the new Library-commissioned work by Wonder, "Sketches of a Life," which premiered before a rapt audience in the Library's historic Coolidge Auditorium.

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