We Attended Stevie Wonder’s Concert: Here’s Why It Was Unforgettable

“I want to offer you not just a fragment of my heart, but my whole heart,” Stevie Wonder tells us at the end of more than two and a half hours of performance. From the top of his 76 years, the composer, producer, singer and multi-instrumentalist did not hold back: he did not merely perform every track from his sumptuous album Songs in the Key of Life (1976), an absolute masterpiece, but he also added the four tracks from the EP A Something’s Extra (released the same time as the album in question) and the classic Superstition (four years earlier) as an astonishing bonus. Alternately playful and imposing, the American offered a masterclass in soul, funk and R&B to an audience that filled the Accor Arena to the brim.

The former Bercy was not quite full when the lights went out, shortly after 8:20 p.m., with no opener. Latecomers would have regretted missing the striking opening of the evening: in a voiceover, Stevie asks us to close our eyes and try to feel what it’s like to be deprived of sight, as he is, and he speaks briefly while the room is plunged into darkness (we peeked in with a quick glance). When his short speech ends, all the spotlights come back on and we find the maestro at the center of the stage, in front of an army of keyboards, surrounded by nearly thirty musicians and backing vocalists, including the Frenchman Frédéric Yonnet on a rousing harmonica, a strings ensemble led by a conductor, a brass section and two trusted collaborators, bassist Nathan Watts and keyboardist Greg Phillinganes (both already by his side in 1976). Ovation, even if the early numbers are less apt to evoke euphoric celebration than the ones that follow, such as the explosive Sir Duke and I Wish, aided by shimmering keyboards and gleaming brass, or the monumental Pastime Paradise, repeatedly sampled with its nagging violin lines.

A double album celebrating its 50th anniversary

The band complies with the game of respecting the order of the double album, which had just celebrated its 50th anniversary at the end of September. At the time, Stevie Wonder was only 26 and it was already the eighteenth record of his career – with his gifted ear for music and his dexterity in handling various instruments at a very young age, he signed with Motown at just eleven. Songs in the Key of Life is for many the peak of his songwriting, capable of evoking the trials of love and spirituality while not neglecting social struggle and the fight against racism. Half a century later, these songs remain as catchy as on the first listen and their messages are still all too relevant.

That is what the singer bemoans at the start of the second act (disc 2). Just as he’s about to perform the radiant Isn’t She Lovely, written at the birth of his daughter Aisha (who today is part of his backing vocalists), a slideshow of family photos scrolls across the giant screen to proudly show his abundant offspring and, above all, deliver a peace speech: “Leaders of certain nations should stop the nonsense and think about our children. I don’t want to live in a world where we don’t know what tomorrow will bring.”

A surprise guest

Faithful to the nickname he has chosen for himself, Stevie Wonder works wonders in this second half and loosens up more and more, with his golden fingers and an always impressive vibrato— notably All Day Sucker with its psychedelic touch or If It’s Magic, a suspended moment where his voice is simply accompanied by an imperial harp. The level of bliss is already high, but the finale reaches its climax with the three closing titles: the majestic As, two little letters to embody a legendary river of a track that could have wandered for hours without tiring us for a moment, followed by the intoxicating Another Star during which the backing vocalists come to the front of the stage to steal the show. The album ends here, but Stevie extends the encore with a final flourish to finish in style: Superstition, the keystone of funk. A luxury guest joins the thirty-strong on stage: Lenny Kravitz and his blazing electric guitar inject their rock’n’roll touch into the festivities. “I love you, never forget that,” Stevie told us a little earlier in a coaxing voice. Words that will remain etched in our memory, just like this anthology of a concert.

Songs in the Key of Life 50: The EP (Motown Records/Universal). Released since September 28.