Stevie Wonder Shares Poignant Response to Longstanding Rumor He's Not Really Blind
Wonder – who has been performing since the age of 11 and scored his first Hot 100 chart-topper with 'Fingertips' at 13 – has long been noted for his status as a blind man, having lost his vision weeks after his birth.
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However, his prolific output and tireless work in the music industry over the past 64 years has resulted in a half-serious theory that Wonder can in fact see. Though often shared as a tongue-in-cheek rumor, Wonder's ability to navigate the world around him has resulted in many of these theories coming to light.
In 2019, former NBA player Shaquille O'Neal shared a tale of Wonder recognizing him in an elevator, while comedian and actor Anthony Anderson once recalled how he challenged Wonder to a basketball game. 'What y'all don't know is, Stevie can see,' he told Stephen Colbert in 2016. 'It's just an act.'
Now, at a recent tour stop in Cardiff, Wales for his Love, Light & Song U.K. tour, Wonder used an opportunity to speak to the crowd to dispel the enduring speculation.
'I must say to all of you, something that I was thinking, 'When did I want to let the world know this?' But I wanted to say it right now,' Wonder began. 'You know there have been rumors about me seeing and all that? But seriously, you know the truth.
'Truth is, shortly after my birth, I became blind,' he continued. 'Now, that was a blessing because it's allowed me to see the world in the vision of truth, of sight. See people in the spirit of them, not how they look. Not what color they are, but what color is their spirit?'
Wonder has not released a new studio album since 2005's A Time to Love, though since 2008, he has spoken about a new project titled Through the Eyes of Wonder, which has been described as a performance piece that will reflect his experience as a blind man.
'What I want to do with our live performances is to create visuals that [give] my take on how I see the world and how most various things affected me,' he explained at the time.
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Did the Surprise-Release Strategy Work for Justin Bieber's ‘Swag' Based on Its First-Week Returns?
It was a quiet start to the summer in pop music, but it's been a lot louder recently — with perhaps the most noise being generated by superstar Justin Bieber's release of a new album with just 10 hours' notice. Swag, Bieber's first LP since 2021's Justice, dropped at midnight on July 11 after having been announced earlier that afternoon. The 21-track set features another sonic left turn for The Bieb, eschewing the widescreen pop sound of his Justice LP in favor of a softer, more intimate alt-R&B, inspired by collaborators like Dijon, Eddie Benjamin and Carter Lang. The album bows at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, with 163,000 first-week units (according to Luminate), while launching 16 tracks onto this week's Billboard Hot 100, led by the No. 2-bowing focus track 'Daisies.' 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Katie Atkinson: Considering the whole world didn't know the album existed until the day before — and there was no physical release, music videos or promotional appearances — I'm going to go with a 9. These are big week-one numbers based almost entirely on streaming, and it's Bieber's biggest streaming week ever. Not to mention, if Swag came out one week earlier, it would have been No. 1 (as Morgan Wallen's I'm the Problem spent its eighth week atop the chart with 151,000 equivalent album units). It isn't No. 1, but it's a win. Katie Bain: I'm sure there's a twinge of disappointment as the reasonable expectation for a project of this magnitude is No. 1 debuts across the board. However, the competition is stiff right now, so I'm sure the general vibe is like, 8-ish, and the idea now is to pull the necessary levers to keep climbing. Stephen Daw: A hearty, solid 9. Had it been double No. 1 debuts and the dethroning of 'Ordinary,' this would be a strong 10, but moving over 150,000 units and charting more than half the album's songs on the Hot 100 is still a massive reason for celebration. Kyle Denis: A solid 8. Considering this is a surprise release that had a limited number of formats and a sound that strayed from the chart-topping pop of Justice and Purpose, Swag pulled off a strong showing. Over 75% of the album landed on the Hot 100, and the LP gifted Bieber the biggest streaming week of his career. No. 1s are nice to have, yes, but it's not like he's starving for them on either the Hot 100 or Billboard 200. Andrew Unterberger: An 8 seems right. Considering how Bieber's sonic detours haven't always been warmly greeted, this getting such a resounding streaming debut and such a major response for its lead single have to be seen as wins — though undoubtedly, Bieb and his team would've loved to see at least one of those No. 2 bows get bumped up a spot. 2. was given a largely surprise release, debuting just 10 hours after its existence was announced. Would you say the first-week response to the set has validated that release strategy, or do you think he would have done better with more build-up? Katie Atkinson: I think the surprise release was effective, but could have been even more potent if his team had been working on a physical release behind the scenes (not unlike the Jackboys 2 rollout, which had the surprise element and a physical release) or if there had been a 'Daisies' music video ready to roll at midnight. Of course, then there would have been way more opportunities for the surprise release to be spoiled. So if Bieber wanted the purest possible surprise, he got it this way… and his best streaming numbers yet. Katie Bain: 2021's Justice got the full court press, superstar artist red carpet album campaign. (Including, fwiw, this cover story I got to write about it.) That all worked about as well as the global team that made it happen hoped it might, with the album debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. That said, I think the sonic right turn of Swag and the general tone of Bieber's public life and persona right now are simply more well-suited to a surprise drop, given that it's effectively a mic drop move that cuts through the considerable noise. The sonic evolution of the album, paired with its release style, gives the sense that regardless of what the messaging has been about Bieber over the last 12 months or so, he's doing things on his own terms. (Here I can't help but think of Beyonce's 2013 self-titled surprise drop, with that out of nowhere release strategy similarly underlining the new direction of that album.) And whether or not Swag could have done better with more build-up seems negligible, as it's doing quite well. Stephen Daw: It's a validation, I think. Take a look at his last album, 2021's Justice, and you'll see that the traditional release pattern worked — Bieber announced that album about a month prior to its release, and the LP earned a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 and 154,000 equivalent album units in its first week. While Swag didn't nab that top spot, it did move almost 10,000 more units in its first week with almost no promotion beforehand; the only reason it was boxed out of the top slot of the Billboard 200 was because of another behemoth album bow. Clearly, the prospect of having a new Bieber project available to listen to within mere hours of its announcement paid off in spades. 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