Stevie Wonder to Open Songs in the Key of Life Anniversary Tour in Birmingham
The 76-year-old will play the 1976 album in full at 18 shows, including London, Manchester and Glasgow. UK general sale opens at 10am on Friday.
Stevie Wonder will open a world tour marking 50 years of Songs in the Key of Life at Birmingham's Utilita Arena next month, with four arena dates in Britain among the 18 shows announced on Tuesday.
The singer, who is 76, will perform the 1976 double album in full at every concert. The tour starts on 13 October and moves through Europe before crossing the Atlantic for a run of American shows that finishes in Los Angeles a week before Christmas.
The UK and Ireland dates
Britain has more dates than any other country on the European leg. After the opening night in Birmingham, Wonder tours the rest of the continent before returning to these islands in November:
- 13 October: Utilita Arena, Birmingham
- 1 November: 3Arena, Dublin
- 3 November: The O2, London
- 8 November: Co-op Live, Manchester
- 11 November: OVO Hydro, Glasgow
Between Birmingham and Dublin the tour visits Paris, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Hannover, Cologne and Amsterdam, playing roughly every other night.
The American leg opens at Madison Square Garden in New York on 19 November, followed by Chicago and Washington. Wonder then plays two nights at the Fox Theatre in Detroit, his home city, on 8 and 9 December, before a final show at the Intuit Dome in the Los Angeles area on 19 December.
How to get tickets
A presale for the British and European dates opened on Wednesday 9 September. General sale for the UK and Ireland shows begins at 10am on Friday 11 September, with tickets sold through Live Nation.
With a single date in each British city, and a long-standing following in this country, competition for seats is expected to be fierce. Fans are advised to register and log in to ticketing accounts in advance of the sale.
In the United States, most shows went on sale on Thursday, while the two Detroit concerts follow on 15 September.
An album that defined an era
Songs in the Key of Life was released on 28 September 1976 as a double LP with a bonus four-track EP, A Something's Extra. It entered the American album chart at number one, the first record by an American artist to do so, and spent a total of 14 weeks at the top.
It won four Grammy awards, including Album of the Year, and has been certified diamond in the United States. In 2005 the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry, which preserves recordings judged to be culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.
The album produced two American number one singles, I Wish and Sir Duke, and includes Isn't She Lovely and As. Recorded over two years in studios in Los Angeles, Sausalito and New York, it featured contributions from Herbie Hancock, George Benson and Minnie Riperton.
It crowned a run of albums Wonder made in the early and mid-1970s that is still regarded as one of the most remarkable creative streaks in popular music, and it remains a reference point for generations of soul, R&B and pop artists.
Why Birmingham matters
Opening a global anniversary tour outside London gives the Midlands the first night of one of the autumn's most anticipated concert runs. It also means British audiences will see the show before anyone else in Europe or America.
The four British arena dates in a little under a month, spread across England and Scotland, reflect the strength and longevity of Wonder's following here.
What happens next
General sale opens on Friday morning. No additional dates have been announced so far, although promoters often add shows where demand outstrips supply. For many in the audience, the concerts will be the first chance to hear the album played from start to finish, half a century after it was released.
Image: Mat Fascione via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
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