Stevie Wonder at Garanti Jazz Green

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Acclaimed US singer and songwriter Stevie Wonder will take the stage in Istanbul for the first time in September within the scope of the Garanti Jazz Green concerts.

Garanti Jazz Green is featuring celebrated American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist Stevie Wonder. The master pianist and singer of soul music will take the santralistanbul stage September 14.

Blind since shortly after birth, Wonder is best known for singles such as “Superstition,” “Sir Duke,” “I Wish” and “I Just Called to Say I Love You.” Well known albums also include “Talking Book,” “Innervisions” and “Songs in the Key of Life.”

Winner of 22 Grammy awards

 He has recorded more than 30 U.S. top ten hits and received 22 Grammy Awards, the most ever awarded to a male solo artist. 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 holiday in the United States. In 2009, Wonder was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace. In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the U.S. singles chart’s 50th anniversary, with Wonder at number five.

His 2010 tour included a two-hour set at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, a stop at London’s “Hard Rock Calling” in Hyde Park, and appearances at England’s Glastonbury Festival, Rotterdam’s North Sea Jazz Festival, a concert in Bergen, Norway and a concert in Dublin, Ireland at the O2 Arena. In February 2011, the Apollo Theater announced that Stevie Wonder would be the next in line for the Apollo Legends Hall of Fame. The theater said the singer would be inducted into the New York City institution’s Hall of Fame in five months.

On June 25, 2011, Wonder performed at the opening ceremony of the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Athens, Greece. On January 28, Wonder and Christina Aguilera gave a musical tribute at Etta James’ funeral. Wonder played “Shelter in the Rain” and “The Lord’s Prayer” while Aguilera sang “At Last.”

Wonder performed at the February 19, 2012 memorial service for Whitney Houston at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. He changed some of the lyrics of his song “Ribbon in the Sky” in dedication to the late singer.