Stevie Wonder Brings Songs In The Key of Life Tour to U.K.
Stevie Wonder will play his landmark album Songs In The Key of Life in full in London’s Hyde Park on July 10. The Motown superstar is the latest act to be confirmed for the British Summer Time weekend festival, which also sees sets from Carole King, Take That and Kendrick Lamar.
We’re giving away a pair of tickets to see Stevie Wonder live at London’s Hyde Park on July 10. Simply answer the question below from the options provided for your chance to win. Travel and accommodation are not included.
Click here for the full Terms & Conditions
Songs In The Key of Life features hits like “I Wish,” “Sir Duke,” “Pastime Paradise” and “As,” and won a Grammy for album of the year in 1976. Wonder has been playing it in concert to rave reviews in America since 2014. Rolling Stone called it “free-spirited, triumphant and huge,” while The New York Times described the three-hour show as “a journey of jubilation.” Wonder’s 30-piece touring band even features his first daughter Aisha, who inspired the opening track of the album’s second disc, “Isn’t She Lovely.”
Released in 1976, but recorded over the previous two years, Songs In The Key of Life remains Wonder’s most ambitious album, incorporating bouncy R&B, gritty funk, mellifluous jazz, gospel chants, Afrobeat, fusion and even Brazilian flourishes. Spanning 17 tracks (plus an additional four from the simultaneously-released A Something’s Extra EP) it aimed to capture the nuance of human existence, encapsulating love, relationships, and searing social commentary.
The album topped the Billboard charts for 14 weeks and reached No. 2 in the U.K. In 2005, Songs In The Key of Life was added to the U.S. National Recording Registry, which recognizes recordings that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States.”
President Obama, Kanye West, Sir Elton John and George Michael have all named it as their favorite recording.
“Wherever I go in the world, I always take a copy of Songs In The Key of Life,” Sir Elton wrote in Rolling Stone six years ago. “For me, it’s the best album ever made and I’m always left in awe after I listen to it.”
