Stevie Wonder returns!

Ebony, July, 2004 by Lynn Norment

FOR Stevie Wonder, it's a time to love and to live, and this 54-year-old artist is doing just that--living well, loving life and continuing to deliver incredible music. The world is anxiously awaiting a new recording from the former child prodigy, who is one of the industry's most profound and most revered musicmakers.

In the years since Motown founder Berry Gordy and a producer discovered the talented child in the early '60s, Wonder has amassed 19 Grammy Awards and 48 Top 40 singles, 25 of which achieved No. 1 status. He has sold more than 100 million records worldwide and even won an Academy Award.

Equally astonishing is that he has accomplished all this despite the fact that he was born blind and hasn't released new music in almost 10 years. Many ask why the brilliant and beloved maestro maintained such a long hiatus. Was he in a dispute with his record company? Was he disheartened by the hustle-bustle of the demanding show business lifestyle? Was he fed up with what was going on in the music industry in general?

Stevland Morris Judkins, his given name, says there really were no issues. "I was just doing my thing," he says in an EBONY interview. "I was just living and sharing life. That is something that we do in the creative process when you are working on music and songs. The issue is not why it took so long; it is how much life have you lived that encourages and inspires you to write."

He goes on to say that the new album's title, A Time to Love, was inspired by that process. "A Time to Love is a statement within itself, being that is what we need--a time to love. We have a time for war, to pay bills and taxes, a time to build prisons, to create. It is in the lyrics; the world gave me the concept, idea ... And we're talking about all kinds of love on this project."

Berry Gordy quickly signed a young Stevie Wonder to Motown's Tamla label in 1961 and in 1963 released his debut album, Little Stevie Wonder: The Twelve-Year-Old Genius. Featured was the hit "Fingertips, Part 2," which became the first live performance of a song to reach No. 1 on U.S. pop charts. That same year, he became the first recording artist to reach No. 1 on three Billboard charts simultaneously.

Over the years, Wonder has delivered great music and won the respect of music colleagues and the love of millions of fans. Among his hits are "For Once in My Life" "My Cherie Amour," "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours," "Higher Ground," "Superstition," "You Are the Sunshine of My Life," "Part-Time Lover" and "I Just Called to Say I Love You" (from the movie Lady In Red), which won him an Academy Award for "Best Song" in 1985.

In addition to 19 Grammy Awards (and a remarkable 59 nominations), he was honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996 and inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998. Wonder was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.

Just as significant as his many music industry honors are his social activism-inspired lyrics and awards for his charitable, philanthropic and social endeavors. Wonder's Hotter Than July album became the springboard to launch his campaign to have January 15, the birthday of civil rights legend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., declared a national U.S. holiday. (In 1984, after an overwhelming groundswell of support, former President Ronald Reagan declared the third Monday of each January to be officially known as Martin Luther King Jr. Day.)

"Dr. King's vision was far ahead of the years," Wonder says now. "I think that his vision was always positive and the best for us as African-American people, and for humankind as a whole." Yet, says Wonder, "There are still a lot of things to talk about," he explains. "Our relationships between husband and wife or significant other, how we handle relationships as Black men and Black women, how we get along with each other, how much we communicate, and our relationships with our children ... We talk to family through television, rather than talking to each other and with each other. Maybe we need to turn the television off and talk to each other more. We need to have dinnertime and other times ... There is too much disrespect between man and woman. There has to be that place where we can communicate. We need to connect as a family."

Other causes that Wonder has championed over the years include gun control, the end of apartheid in South Africa, AIDS awareness, and the tight against world hunger. "Stevie Wonder is a living legend for both his talent and his heart," Michael Green, former president/CEO of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, has said of the artist. "His musical accomplishments are matched only by his philanthropic endeavors to the community at large."

In accepting an honorary doctor of music degree at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1996, Wonder said: "Many years ago, but not so long ago, there were those who said, 'Well, you have three strikes against you: You're Black, you're blind and you're poor.' But God said to me, 'I will make you rich in the spirit of inspiration, to inspire others as well as create music to encourage the world to a place of oneness and hope and positivity.' I believed Him and not them."