Stevie Wonder Net Worth: 200 Million USD
Stevie Wonder Salary: 5 Million USD/year
The $200 million dollar American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer Stevie Wonder is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and songwriter who is admired by many for his brilliance.
At the age of 11, Stevie Wonder signed with Motown Records. "Superstition," "Isn't She Lovely," and "I Just Called to Say I Love You" are a few of his 30 #1 singles.Stevie Wonder, real name Stevland Hardaway Morris (born May 13, 1950), is an American singer-songwriter who is credited as a pioneer and an influence by performers from a variety of musical genres, including rhythm and blues, pop, soul, gospel, funk, and jazz. Wonder was a virtual one-man band who revolutionized R&B in the 1970s by using synthesizers and other electronic instruments.
Incorporating socially conscious remarks into his LPs' intricate compositions, he also contributed to bringing such genres into the album era. Wonder, a child prodigy who had been blind since shortly after his birth, signed with Motown's Tamla label at the age of 11 and was given the stage name Little Stevie Wonder.
With over 100 million records sold globally, Wonder is one of the best-selling musicians of all time. He has one Academy Award and 25 Grammy Awards, the most of any solo musician (Best Original Song, for the 1984 film The Woman in Red).
Wonder has been honored with induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame. He is renowned for his work as a political activist, particularly for his 1980 drive to have Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday declared a federal holiday in the United States. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014 after being appointed a United Nations Messenger of Peace in 2009.
Early life
Stevland Hardaway Judkins, the second of Lula Mae Hardaway's two children with Calvin Judkins, was born Wonder on May 13, 1950, in Saginaw, Michigan. Hardaway was the third of five children to be born to the couple. He was born six weeks early, which combined with the oxygen-rich environment of the hospital incubator to induce retinopathy of prematurity, a condition in which the development of the eyes is stunted and results in the retinas detaching, rendering him blind.
When Wonder was four years old, his mother filed for divorce from his father and relocated to Detroit, Michigan, where Wonder participated in the Whitestone Baptist Church choir as a young child. After rekindling her connection with the father of her first child, who also happened to have the last name of Hardaway, she eventually had two more children and changed her name back to Lula Hardaway.
According to Lula Mae Hardaway's authorized biography, Stevie's surname was legally changed to Morris when he signed with Motown in 1961. This was an old family name. "Little Stevie Wonder" is the stage moniker that Berry Gordy gave to the performer.
He started learning to play the piano, harmonica, and drums at a young age. Together with a buddy, he started the singing duo Stevie and John. They periodically performed at events like dances and parties as well as on street corners.
Wonder went to Fitzgerald Elementary School in Detroit when he was younger. The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie, his debut album, was published in 1962, and soon after that he enrolled in the Michigan School for the Blind in Lansing, Michigan.
Career
When Wonder was 11 years old, Ronnie White of the Miracles saw him perform his own song, "Lonely Boy." White then brought Wonder and his mother to an audition at Motown, where CEO Berry Gordy signed Wonder to Motown's Tamla label. Producer Clarence Paul gave him the moniker Little Stevie Wonder before he signed.
Due to Wonder's young age, the label created a rolling five-year contract that provided for the holding of royalties in trust until Wonder was 21. Wonder received $2.50 (the equivalent of $22.67 in 2021) every week, and a private tutor was provided when Wonder was on tour, to help him and his mother with their living expenses.
Clarence Paul, a producer and songwriter, was entrusted with Wonder, and for a year, the two of them collaborated on two albums. When Wonder was still 11 years old, the tribute to Uncle Ray was the first song recorded. Mainly versions of Ray Charles's songs, the CD contained a Wonder and Paul creation, "Sunset". The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie was recorded next, an instrumental album comprising entirely of Paul's songs, two of which, "Wondering" and "Session Number 112", were co-written with Wonder.
Wonder, just 13 years old, became the youngest musician to ever reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with his single "Fingertips" in 1963. In the 1970s, Wonder's critical acclaim reached its pinnacle. With the release of Music of My Mind and Talking Book in 1972, which included "Superstition," one of the most recognizable and well-known instances of the sound of the Hohner Clavinet piano, his "classic phase" officially began.
The first single from Berry Gordy's Feeling Wonder, "I Call It Pretty Music, But the Old People Call It the Blues," was released in the summer of 1962 and came dangerously close to reaching the Billboard 100, spending one week in August at number 101 before being pulled from consideration.
The two albums that were issued in reverse order of recording—The Jazz Soul of Minimal Stevie in September 1962 and Tribute to Uncle Ray in October 1962—also met with little success. The two follow-up singles, "Little Water Boy" and "Contract on Love," neither achieved much popularity.
With three Grammy Award-winning albums—Innervisions (1973), Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974), and Songs in the Key of Life (1976)—he now shares the record for the most Album of the Year triumphs. He is the only musician to have received the honor while releasing three albums in a row. In the 1980s, Wonder began his "commercial period."
During this time, he had his biggest hits and rose to the height of his fame. He also experienced an increase in album sales, charitable giving, high-profile partnerships (with Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, among others), political impact, and television appearances. Wonder has continued to support political and musical causes.
Favorite Quotes from Stevie Wonder
“I can’t say that I’m always writing in my head but I do spend a lot of time in my head writing or coming up with ideas. And what I do usually is write the music and melody and then, you know, maybe the basic idea. But when I feel that I don’t have a song or just say, God, please give me another song. And I just am quiet and it happens.” – Stevie Wonder
“Different artists are talking about the laws that exist and how they need to be fixed so that compensation does happen to a far fairer level. And I agree with that.” – Stevie Wonder
“What I’m not confused about is the world needing much more love, no hate, no prejudice, no bigotry, and more unity, peace, and understanding. Period.” – Stevie Wonder
“I am all for anything that is going to better equip a person who is physically challenged in any way, to have an opportunity to be able to do what they are able to do.” – Stevie Wonder
“People love to hear music on their personal devices, but the issue really becomes, if you’re able to download music, you should know this download and the quality of it is going to be of the highest, and that it has a value to it and on it.” – Stevie Wonder
“We’re stuck in fear and in not wanting to cross that most important bridge of understanding that we’re more alike or not. We all cry, we all laugh.” – Stevie Wonder
Final Thoughts
One of the most prominent performers in popular music during the second half of the 20th century is Wonder. He is one of the most popular musicians and songwriters. His usage of synthesizers and other electronic musical instruments during the 1970s helped widen the sound of R&B. He was essentially a one-man band during his prime years.
He is also recognized as one of the musicians who, by designing his LPs as coherent, consistent statements with sophisticated sounds, helped usher R&B into the album age. His "classic period," which reached its zenith in 1976, was distinguished by his funky keyboard approach, direct involvement in production, and utilization of interwoven song cycles to create concept albums.
Wonder used the Melodian, a vintage music sampler from Computer Music Inc., in his soundtrack CD Stevie Wonder's Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants" in 1979. One of the first popular albums to employ the technology, this was Wonder's debut digital recording and the basis for all later recordings.
Wonder received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996 in addition to his 25 Grammy Awards. Along with Frank Sinatra, he is one of just two individuals or ensembles to have won the Grammy for Album of the Year three times as the lead credited artist. Wonder is the only musician to have received the prize after releasing three albums in a row.