Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder sings, writes and plays his way across soul, funk, R&B and pop, with harmonica, piano and drums all part of his musical vocabulary. Blind since infancy, he signed a recording contract while still a child and landed his first hit in 1963.

He had mastered harmonica and drums before turning ten, and he went on to become a pioneer of the synthesizer in soul and pop. His run of albums in the 1970s includes Talking Book and Innervisions, and his songwriting has long carried a social conscience, with lyrics that take on justice and racial harmony.

That conscience reaches beyond the studio: he campaigned for the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. to become a national holiday, and he has lent his voice to benefit recordings for humanitarian causes. His catalogue stretches from funk built for dancing to tender ballads, and on stage it is in the hands of a multi-instrumentalist who has been performing since childhood.