Age, Biography and Wiki
Stevie Wonder, born Stevland Hardaway Judkins, is an American musician celebrated for his contributions to popular music. Despite being born prematurely and becoming blind shortly after birth, Wonder's prodigious talent was evident from an early age. He signed with Motown Records at just 11 years old and has since become one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with over 100 million records sold worldwide.
| Occupation | Blues Singer |
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| Date of Birth | 13 May 1950 |
| Age | 75 Years |
| Birth Place | Saginaw, Michigan, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Taurus |
| Country | U.S |
Height, Weight & Measurements
Stevie Wonder's height is about 5 feet 10 inches (178 cm), though specific details about his current weight are not widely available. As a blind person, his physical attributes are less highlighted in the media compared to his musical achievements.
| Height | 5 feet 10 inches |
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Dating & Relationship status
Stevie Wonder has had a complex personal life, with multiple marriages and relationships. He has nine children from these relationships, indicating a vibrant and often tumultuous family life.
When Wonder was four, his mother divorced his father and moved with her three children to Detroit. Wonder attended Whitestone Baptist Church, where he sang in the choir and became a soloist at age eight. His mother later rekindled her relationship with her first child's father (whose surname was also coincidentally Hardaway), changed her name back to Lula Hardaway, and had two more children.
In 1961, at the age of 11, Wonder sang his own composition, "Lonely Boy", to Ronnie White of the Miracles; White then took Wonder and his mother to an audition at Motown, where CEO Berry Gordy signed Wonder to Motown's Tamla label. Before signing, producer Clarence Paul gave him the name Little Stevie Wonder. Because of Wonder's age, the label drew up a rolling five-year contract in which royalties would be held in trust until Wonder was 21. He and his mother would be paid a weekly stipend to cover their expenses: Wonder received $2.50 per week, and a private tutor was provided when Wonder was on tour.
Wonder was put in the care of producer and songwriter Clarence Paul, and for a year they worked together on two albums. Tribute to Uncle Ray was recorded first, when Wonder was still 11 years old. Mainly covers of Ray Charles's songs, the album included a Wonder and Paul composition, "Sunset". The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie was recorded next, an instrumental album consisting mainly of Paul's compositions, two of which, "Wondering" and "Session Number 112", were co-written with Wonder. Feeling Wonder was now ready, a song, "Mother Thank You", was recorded for release as a single, but then pulled and replaced by the Berry Gordy song "I Call It Pretty Music, But the Old People Call It the Blues" as his début single; released summer 1962, it almost broke into the Billboard 100, spending one week of August at 101. Two follow-up singles, "Little Water Boy" and "Contract on Love", both had no success, and the two albums, released in reverse order of recording—The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie in September 1962 and Tribute to Uncle Ray in October 1962—also met with little success.
Wonder has nine children with five women. Two were born to Yolanda Simmons, whom Wonder met when she applied for a job as secretary for his publishing company. Simmons gave birth to Wonder's daughter Aisha Morris on February 2, 1975. Aisha was the inspiration for Wonder's hit single "Isn't She Lovely?" She is now a singer who has toured with her father and accompanied him on recordings, including his 2005 album A Time to Love. Wonder and Simmons also had a son, Keita, in 1977.
In 1983, Wonder had a son named Mumtaz Morris with Melody McCulley. Wonder also has a daughter, Sophia, and a son, Kwame, with a woman whose identity has not been publicly disclosed. Wonder has two sons with second wife Kai Millard Morris. The elder is named Kailand, and he occasionally performs as a drummer on stage with his father.
On May 31, 2006, Wonder's mother Lula Mae Hardaway died in Los Angeles at the age of 76. During his September 8, 2008, UK concert in Birmingham, he spoke of his decision to begin touring again following his loss: "I want to take all the pain that I feel and celebrate and turn it around."
| Parents | |
| Husband | Syreeta Wright (m. 1970-1972) Kai Millard (m. 2001-2012) Tomeeka Bracy (m. 2017) |
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Net Worth and Salary
As of 2025, Stevie Wonder's net worth is estimated to be between $200 million and $210 million. His wealth primarily comes from his successful music career, including sales, touring, and publishing rights. Additionally, he has made strategic investments in real estate and music publishing companies, further contributing to his net worth.
Career, Business and Investments
Stevie Wonder's career spans over five decades, with iconic hits like "Superstition," "Isn't She Lovely," and "I Just Called to Say I Love You." He is credited with pioneering the use of synthesizers in music, which significantly influenced the sound of R&B and soul. Besides music, Wonder owns several properties in Los Angeles and Hawaii, and he holds a significant stake in music publishing companies like EMI.
In 1992, Wonder went to perform at Panafest, a new international festival of music held biennially in Ghana; it was during this trip that he composed many of the songs featured on Conversation Peace, and he would describe in a 1995 interview the powerful impact his visit to that country had: "I'd only been there for 18 hours when I decided I'd eventually move there permanently." In 1994, as co-chair of Panafest that year, he headlined a concert at the National Theatre in Accra, capital city of Ghana.
In June 2021, Wonder appeared in the documentary Summer of Soul, directed by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, showing the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969. In never-before-seen footage, a young 19-year-old Stevie Wonder is seen performing in front of thousands of people in Harlem. His performance shown in the documentary included "It's Your Thing" by the Isley Brothers and a drum solo. Wonder talks about the turning point made in his career during this time and how this helped him get out of being seen as just a child star.
Wonder recorded several critically acclaimed albums and hit singles, and also wrote and produced songs for many of his label mates and outside artists as well. In his childhood, he was best known for his harmonica work, but today he is better known for his keyboard skills and vocal ability. He plays the piano, synthesizer, harmonica, congas, drums, bongos, organ, melodica and Clavinet. Wonder has been credited as a pioneer and influence to musicians of various genres, including pop, rhythm and blues, soul, funk and rock.
Social Network
Stevie Wonder is not highly active on social networks, as his focus has remained on creating and performing music. However, his influence and legacy are widely celebrated across various platforms by fans and fellow musicians.
Wonder's single "Fingertips" was a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963, when he was 13, making him the youngest solo artist ever to top the chart. Wonder's critical success was at its peak in the 1970s. His "classic period" began in 1972 with the releases of Music of My Mind and Talking Book, the latter featuring "Superstition", which is one of the most distinctive and famous examples of the sound of the Hohner Clavinet keyboard. His works Innervisions (1973), Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974) and Songs in the Key of Life (1976) all won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, making him the only artist to have won the award with three consecutive album releases. Wonder began his "commercial period" in the 1980s; he achieved his biggest hits and highest level of fame, had increased album sales, charity participation, high-profile collaborations (including with Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson), political impact, and television appearances. Wonder has continued to remain active in music and political causes.
By 1975, at the age of 25, Wonder had won two consecutive Grammy Awards: in 1974 for Innervisions and in 1975 for Fulfillingness' First Finale. In 1976, when Paul Simon won the Album of the Year Grammy for his Still Crazy After All These Years, he wryly noted: "I'd like to thank Stevie Wonder, who didn't make an album this year."
Wonder's albums during his "classic period" were considered very influential in the music world: the 1983 Rolling Stone Record Guide said they "pioneered stylistic approaches that helped to determine the shape of pop music for the next decade"; in 2005, American recording artist Kanye West said of his own work: "I'm not trying to compete with what's out there now. I'm really trying to compete with Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life. It sounds musically blasphemous to say something like that, but why not set that as your bar?" Slate magazine's pop critic, Jack Hamilton, said: "Most Americans follow up their 21st birthdays with a hangover; Stevie Wonder opted for arguably the greatest sustained run of creativity in the history of popular music. Wonder's "classic period"—the polite phrase for when Stevie spent five years ferociously dunking on the entire history of popular music with the releases of Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness' First Finale, and Songs in the Key of Life [...] We've never heard anything like it since, and barring another reincarnation, we never will again."
Wonder joined Twitter on April 4, 2018, and his first tweet was a five-minute video honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Dozens of famous personalities were rounded up in the video, which was titled "The Dream Still Lives". Each person involved shared their dream, calling back to King's popular speech in 1963. Wonder's first tweet took the Internet by storm, and he also encouraged viewers to share their own videos about their dreams with the hashtag #DreamStillLives.
Education
Details about Stevie Wonder's formal education are limited, as his career in music began at a very young age. His early life was marked by his prodigious musical talent and his development as a musician under Motown Records.
In summary, Stevie Wonder's enduring legacy and financial success are testaments to his innovative spirit and dedication to music. His impact on the industry is immeasurable, and his net worth reflects his status as a cultural icon.
Wonder attended Fitzgerald Elementary School in Detroit. After his first album was released, The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie (1962), he enrolled in Michigan School for the Blind in Lansing, Michigan.
On August 6, 1973, Wonder was injured in a serious automobile accident while on tour in North Carolina, when a car in which he was riding hit the back of a truck. This left him in a coma for four days and resulted in a partial loss of his sense of smell and a temporary loss of sense of taste. Despite orders from his doctor to refrain from performing, Wonder performed at a homecoming benefit for Shaw University in Raleigh, in November 1973. Shaw was facing financial difficulties, so Wonder, who was a member of the university's board of trustees, rallied other acts including Exuma, LaBelle, and the Chambers Brothers to join the concert, which raised more than $10,000 for the school's scholarship fund.
Hotter than July (1980) became Wonder's first platinum-selling single album, and its single "Happy Birthday" was a successful vehicle for his campaign to establish Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a national holiday. The album also included "Master Blaster (Jammin')", "I Ain't Gonna Stand for It", and the sentimental ballad, "Lately".
In May 1999, Rutgers University presented Wonder with an honorary doctorate degree in fine arts. In December 1999, Wonder announced that he was interested in pursuing an intraocular retinal prosthesis to partially restore his sight.
Wonder is also noted for his work as an activist for political causes, including his 1980 campaign to make Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a federal holiday in the United States. On October 21, 1974, with the Boston busing desegregation underway, Wonder spoke and led students in song at a lounge at the University of Massachusetts Boston the day after he performed at the Boston Garden.
In 2023, Wonder was awarded the Freedom of the City of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, conferred in recognition of his campaign to establish a U.S. national holiday for the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., who in November 1967 had received an honorary degree from Newcastle University.
In May 2024, Wonder was a recipient (alongside Misty Copeland) of the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music and Dance in America, the highest honor awarded by the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.
