American singer-songwriter Stevland Hardaway Morris, better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, was born on May 13, 1950.
Musicians from a variety of genres, including jazz, rhythm & blues, pop, soul, gospel, funk, and funk, have hailed Stevie Wonder as a pioneer and influence.
The usage of synthesizers and other electronic musical instruments by Wonder in the 1970s, effectively a one-man band, changed the R&B norms. 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.
Stevie Wonder parents: Meet Calvin Judkins, Lula Mae Hardaway
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.
