Stevie Wonder appeared on Saturday (October 31) at a drive-in campaign rally in Detroit (Mich.) for the Biden-Harris ticket, at which he served as a warmup to the event’s headliners, former President Barack Obama and presidential candidate Joe Biden. Michigan is a key battleground state in the 2020 presidential election.
During his set, the legend mixed such classics as “Higher Ground” and “Superstition” with his new composition, “Can’t Put It in the Hands of Fate.”
Wonder told the crowd, “The only way we’re gonna win this fight, a fight against injustice, is by voting. We must vote justice in and injustice out.”
The set also included his other newly released song, “Where is Our Love Song,” which Wonder says he started when he was 19 years old but only recently finished. The recording legend announced on Oct. 13 that he was leaving Motown after six decades.
In his remarks at the outdoor campaign event, Wonder referenced President Trump’s remark at the first presidential debate on Sept. 29 when he told the radical Proud Boys group to “stand back and stand by.” Said Wonder, “You know what we say in the ghetto when somebody says that, right? Watch yourself, get your ass whupped.”
The 70-year-old Wonder, born Stevland Judkins, signed with Motown’s Tamla label in 1961, and made his first recordings as Little Stevie Wonder including a #1 pop hit with “Fingertips – Part 1.” By 1965’s “Uptight (Everything’s Alright),” the “Little” was gone but the hits kept coming. He earned another eleven Top 10 singles before he scored another pop chart-topper in 1972 with “Superstition.”
Watch some of Wonder’s set
Wonder has earned ten #1 pop singles, three #1 albums and 25 Grammy Awards (as well as the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award).
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2 Comments
If he were really opposed to injustice, he’d have told Democrats not to riot after their forthcoming Tuesday Heartbreak. But riot they will, and minorities will of course bear the brunt of the injustice just for Living in the City.
The reason barricades are being put up in so many places for election night violence is because of concern about how Trump and his supporters will react to the loss. And don’t forget … Trump inspired and justified the actions of the radical right wing terrorists who conspired to kidnap and assassinate Michigan’s governor.