Stevie Wonder performed at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball on Jan. 20. (AP Photo by Elise Amendola) and at the Lincoln Memorial the Sunday before.
by Mark Silva
Stevie Wonder performed on the Denver football field where Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party's 2008 presidential nomination in front of 80,000 people: "Signed, Sealed, Delivered.''
Wonder played at the Lincoln Memorial, on the Sunday before Obama's inauguration, in front of hundreds of thousands of people on the National Mall, and he played the "Neighborhood Ball'' on inauguration night.
And Wonder will play the White House.
On Wednesday, Feb. 25, the day after the president delivers an address to Congress, Obama will host a concert in the East Room honoring the boy wonder (once Steveland Morris of Saginaw) from Motown, who will be awarded the 2nd annual Gershwin Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Library of Congress.
The concert will be broadcast Feb. 26 on PBS as part of its "In Performance at the White House" series in celebration of African American History Month -- and there's a certain amount of African American history taking place in the White House these days.
The East Room is no football field, no National Mall, but rather an intimate, gilded and chandeliered room for a few hundred guests at most.
"Wonder" is a particular favorite of Michelle Obama, who escorted him to a campaign stage in California where the star lost his footing on the way up -- his recorded anthems opened many a campaign appearance. There will be little room for missteps in the East Room, however.
For the musical record, this is a definite change of genre for a White House whose East Room performances in the past administration featured the likes of Kenny Chesney.
For the new crew: Music in the key of life.
(Photo of Stevie Wonder playing at the Lincoln Memorial on the Sunday before inauguration day by Chuck Liddy/Raleigh News & Observer/MCT)
Comments
I'll bet you Stevie Wonder read more of the Spendulus bill than the democrats that voted on it.
Posted by: Terry | February 13, 2009 9:40 PM
I hope Stevie sings "Black Man" at the white house (the song mentions the achievements of people of all races).
I listened to this song the morning after the election and it gave me chills.
(and I'm white).
Posted by: Dave | February 13, 2009 10:54 PM
I wonder why wonder is a particular favorite of michelle's?
Oh, now I see.
Paulo
Posted by: Paulo | February 13, 2009 11:07 PM
I'll bet you Stevie Wonder read more of the Spendulus bill than the democrats that voted on it.
Posted by: Terry | February 13, 2009 9:40 PM
...
Terri,
I'll bet you Stevie read more of the jobs bill than the Limbaugh Republicans did, the same Limbaugh Repugs who decided they were going to vote against the jobs bill before they even knew what was in it and the same Limbaugh Repugs who spent the last eight years voting for wasting billions on tax cuts for the rich and trumped up war games in Iraq.
Posted by: Republican Oligarchy | February 13, 2009 11:24 PM
In 2000, Stevie sang the following at a rally at Daley Plaza:
"If you want America to win......then vote for Gore and Lieberman......."
How much better the world could have been had the SC not appointed the slow one.
Posted by: Bubba ✔ | February 14, 2009 1:53 AM
It happend for me to listened to this song the morning after the election and its cool man!! I really wonder how do you maintain your hair ?? Can you share the secret? :-)
Posted by: Jenni | February 14, 2009 4:56 AM
BRILLIANT!
Posted by: Kenny Bunkport ☯ | February 14, 2009 7:01 AM
"Republican Oligarchy" -I'm no limbaugh fan---I've read the thing. And I am TIOKED TICKED TICKED that we're AGAIN giving money to wall street. WAKE UP. The little people who NEED help are geting VERY little from this stimulous. We need to LET THE BAD BANKS FAIL__take them OVER. We won't know what hapened to this money either. And we're stillin Iraq and Afghanistan. BLOWING MONEY on the military mafia like there's no tomorrow.
Posted by: It's not about concerts--it's about endeing war spending | February 14, 2009 7:26 AM
Oligarchy,
.
It seems the Republicans knew where all of the lard in the bill was (although not hard to find), while the flatliner dems just followed Dimwit Pelosi and Crooked Land Deal Reid over an economic cliff. I hope they like their Frisbee Golf Course.
Posted by: Terry | February 14, 2009 7:43 AM