Key Takeaways
- Stevie Wonder will perform all 21 tracks from Songs in the Key of Life on a 50th anniversary tour launching Oct. 13 in Birmingham, England.
- The European and U.S. run includes Madison Square Garden, Chicago’s United Center and two Detroit homecoming shows before wrapping Dec. 9, with tickets on sale Sept. 15 through Ticketmaster.
- The Diamond-certified 1976 album features “Sir Duke,” “I Wish,” “As” and “Isn’t She Lovely,” earning Wonder his third Album of the Year Grammy and later joining the National Recording Registry.
Stevie Wonder is opening up the Songs in the Key of Life vault—all of it. The music icon will perform his sprawling 1976 masterpiece in full on a 50th anniversary tour launching this fall, bringing “Sir Duke,” “I Wish,” “As,” “Isn’t She Lovely,” and the rest of the landmark album back to the stage.
The tour opens Oct. 13 in Birmingham, England, before moving through Paris, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Hannover, Cologne, Amsterdam, Dublin, London, Manchester and Glasgow.
Wonder then brings the celebration to the United States for shows at Madison Square Garden in New York on Nov. 19, Chicago’s United Center on Nov. 21, and Washington, D.C., on Nov. 23.
The run wraps with two Detroit homecoming shows at the Fox Theatre on Dec. 8 and 9. Tickets go on sale Sept. 15 at 10 a.m. through Ticketmaster.
Performing Songs in the Key of Life from beginning to end is no small assignment. The original release was a double LP packaged with the four-song A Something’s Extra EP, giving Wonder 21 tracks to move through.
And the famous singles only tell part of the story. “Love’s in Need of Love Today” opens the album with a warning against hatred, “Village Ghetto Land” sets scenes of poverty against elegant strings, and “Black Man” runs through the multicultural history of the United States.
On “Pastime Paradise,” Wonder challenged romanticized versions of the past nearly two decades before Coolio reworked the song into “Gangsta’s Paradise.”
“At a time when the world continues to search for connection, healing and joy, the messages at the heart of Songs in the Key of Life feel as urgent and necessary today as they did in 1976,” the tour’s press release said, according to Rolling Stone.
It added that songs including “As,” “Love’s in Need of Love Today,” “Sir Duke” and “Isn’t She Lovely” remain “woven into the emotional fabric of generations around the world.”
The album arrived during a run that remains almost impossible to match. Wonder won Album of the Year for Innervisions, followed it with another victory for Fulfillingness’ First Finale, and then claimed the prize again with Songs in the Key of Life.
The latter became the biggest-selling album of his career, earned Diamond certification for more than 10 million units sold, and was eventually inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.
Wonder previously launched a celebrated Songs in the Key of Life Performance tour in 2014.
