Stevie Wonder review – a riotously joyful celebration
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This rare UK visit finds the 75-year-old legend in ageless voice and playful mood. Blind since shortly after birth, he swaps sunglasses and jokes 'I can't see without my glasses', then leads the crowd into an impromptu burst of You Are My Sunshine by way of intro to You Are the Sunshine of My Life. Given his age and the length of the show, it's understandable that he takes a break. There is a slight lull as backing vocalists take the spotlight, and later his son Mandla Morris sings I Can Only Be Me.
However, in the second half Wonder turns full-on human jukebox, delivering Golden Lady, Living for the City, Sir Duke, Isn't She Lovely, a riotously joyful I Wish and many more with barely a pause between them. He perhaps mercifully shortens I Just Called to Say I Love You, which signalled his later career excursions into schmaltz. Still, Lately, his 1980 dissection of the pain of a lover's infidelity, is simply stunning in both rawness and vocal range. With the curfew beckoning, he finally ends with a blistering 10-minute Superstition, yelling 'I love you' at the crowd and then as if by magic turning the phrase into a new hook.
This show is very much a celebration of roads travelled, but offers a timely reminder of the brilliance, endurance and uniqueness of one of pop's true greats.
At Utilita Arena, Birmingham, 7 July. Then touring
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