Stevie Wonder booked for Hyde Park festival

The prolific musician is bringing Songs In The Key of Life to the British Summer Time Hyde Park music festival on July 10.

Wonder’s Grammy Award-winning album, released in 1976 by Motown Records, is celebrating its 40th anniversary year. It features hits including Sir Duke, Isn’t She Lovely, and I Wish.

The 65-year-old American singer has performed the entire album in a series of concert dates in the US and Canada since 2014, and will now bring the tour to the UK for the first time.

Songs In The Key of Life has been cited as a major influence by many of the world’s biggest stars, including Sir Elton John, Prince and Michael Jackson.

Sir Elton told Rolling Stone magazine in 2011: “Let me put it this way: wherever I go in the world, I always take a copy of Songs In The Key of Life.

“For me, it’s the best album ever made and I’m always left in awe after I listen to it.

“When people in decades and centuries to come talk about the history of music, they will talk about Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder.”

Wonder rose to fame as a child prodigy in the 1960s, signing with Motown at the age of 11.

He made his mark on the music industry with three much-acclaimed records in the 70s - Talking Book, Innervisions and Fulfillingness’ First Finale - before releasing Songs as a double album.

In 2005, Kanye West told USA Today: “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”

Other artists announced for the 10-day festival in Hyde Park include Mumford and Sons, Massive Attack, Carole King, Take That, Florence + The Machine and Kendrick Lamar.