Legendary soul musician Stevie Wonder closed London’s BST Festival this weekend, performing a selection of tracks from the landmark double album for over four hours.
Wonder spent some of his four hours on stage addressing the recent social issues in the world, imploring the audience to “Tell all the leaders of the world to cut the bull… and fix it. We were all made in God’s image. When you hate someone, you’re hating that image. If I’m blind and I can see it, you can see it too.” This speech earned rapturous applause from a crowd that included actor Bradley Cooper and fellow musician Emile Sande.
The 66-year-old also referred to himself as DJ Tick Tick Boom, before playing recordings of ‘Kiss’ and ‘When Doves Cry’ as a personal tribute to friend and musical protégé Prince, who passed away earlier this year. In addition, Wonder performed classic hits like ‘Isn’t she lovely?’ and ‘I wish’ to 65,000 crowd in Hyde Park.
The veteran musician confessed his fears about being unable to hit higher notes, having felt unwell earlier, confessing “Earlier today I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to sing nothing – “but then I prayed on it.” Despite this, Wonder was in superb form. He finished his marathon set saying: “Maybe next year, we’ll do it again. Are you with me on that?” which was met with the loudest cheer of the day.
Watch highlights of the set below:
