On Tuesday, Stevie Wonder kicked off an international tour celebrating the 50th anniversary of his landmark LP, Songs in the Key of Life at Birmingham, England’s Utilita Arena Birmingham. As promised, Wonder performed the album in its entirety, including the four-song A Something’s Extra 7-inch EP that was packaged with the original vinyl. Wonder ran through the LP largely in order, tucking the A Something’s Extra material in the middle of the show, focusing on sides one and two during his first set and sides three and four during his second set.
The keyboard legend staged similar shows on the road from 2014-2015, but he hadn’t performed several selections live since 2016 before this week, including “Pastime Paradise,” “Summer Soft,” “Ordinary Pain,” “Saturn” “All Day Sucker,” “Easy Goin’ Evening (My Mama’s Call)” and “Ngiculela - Es Una Historia - I Am Singing,” when he played Songs in the Key of Life the most recently at London’s Hyde Park as a one-off offering.
Like on his previous tour behind the expansive record, Wonder returned at the end of the night for a single-song encore, his signature number “Superstition,” which appears on his 1972 release Talking Book.
On Thursday, the tour continued at Paris’ Accor Arena. Wonder once again performed the record in full, sticking to the same running order and lone encore, but he did offer a few surprises. Early on in the evening, French harmonica player Frédéric Yonnet, who was part of the previous touring band behind Songs in the Key of Life, emerged for “Have a Talk with God” early in the show and “Easy Goin’ Evening (My Mama’s Call)” later on in the evening. Then, during “Superstition,” Lenny Kravtiz sat in on an extended version of the tune that riffed on Wonder’s 1974 cut “You Haven’t Done Nothin’.” Kravitz, who lives in France and provided both guitar and vocals on Thursday, has worked with Wonder for years, recording “Deuce” with Wonder for the 1994 tribute Kiss My Ass: Classic Kiss Regrooved and appearing with him and Alicia Keys during the 2004 MTV Music Awards.
Wonder’s tour will continue at Copenhagen, Denmark’s Royal Arena on Sunday.
