Stevie Wonder, one of the most prolific musical geniuses of the 20th century, who has won 25 Grammys, released 23 studio albums and influenced countless musicians across R&B, jazz, funk and soul, needs no introduction. But tonight in Hyde Park, in what would be the closing show of this year’s BST festival season following a last-minute cancellation from Jeff Lynne, who was due to play on Sunday night, he gave us one anyway.
Escorted onstage by his son and daughter, Stevie talked for several minutes of God and of love and of music, of the two legendary men emblazoned on his jacket in diamante studs, John Lennon and Marvin Gaye, and even did a Victorian-orphan style British accent, to make us laugh, which he reprised throughout the show (getting a little more Dick Van Dyke every time).
It was a fitting start to a set that was inarguable in its calibre, astonishing in its musicianship, but which sometimes felt too leisurely, and occasionally tipped dangerously close to self-indulgent.
Stevie Wonder Hyde ParkLondon Bucket List Jeez, how do you actually come down from that, an absolute legend pic.twitter.com/jh2W85zRFc
— Stewart (@whytestew) July 12, 2025Seeing a legend of Wonder’s stature is a once-in-a-lifetime gig; one sensed that the crowd would have been happy just to hear the hits and go home. But while the uptempo numbers were laced through – the addictive lilt of “Higher Ground”, the unforgettable refrain of “Master Blaster (Jammin’)”, the pure joy of “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” – the first two thirds of this almost three-hour show felt dominated by extended soulful slow-jams.
The show also continued to be a family affair – Wonder, 75, invited several of his inevitably talented children to the stage to sing with him, including his daughter Aisha (also a backing singer), who sang a cover of Nancy Wilson’s “Save Your Love for Me”, and son Kailand, who sang a heartfelt version of Wonder’s own “I Can Only Be Me”.
That’s not to say, of course, that plenty of these soppier numbers aren’t in themselves hits. “You Are the Sunshine of My Life”, “My Cherie Amour”, opener “Love’s in Need of Love Today” – no matter how well you know Wonder’s catalogue, it doesn’t cease to be extraordinary. And he threw a couple of outsiders in there, just in case – a cover of Lennon’s “Imagine”, renditions of Aretha Franklin and Anita Baker, plus a guest appearance from the British singer Corinne Bailey Rae for Sly & the Family Stone’s “Everybody is a Star”, a tribute to frontman Sly Stone, who died last month.
There was nothing objectively wrong with the set, it was simply that at points the crowd were in need of a ballad-and-smooth-grooves palate cleanser in the form of a harmonica solo or filthy bassline.
By the end, though, he had delivered in droves: the full band (four horns, four singers, two drummers, full backline including two keys players and two guitarists) were exceptional, sitting back on the grooves as Wonder, in his sparkly sunglasses, knocked out the kind of flawless, otherworldly vocal licks he first sang as a man in his 20s, from funky “I Wish” to the uplifting “Happy Birthday” (dedicated to his daughter, Zaiah, who has just turned 13).
The enduringly joyful “Isn’t She Lovely” was an elated singalong and forever hit “Superstition” was astonishingly tight, Wonder’s vocal impeccable, the rhythm section like glue.
It is such a shame that the overall experience of being at BST Hyde Park festival is so heavily affected by the corporate feel (the festival is sponsored by American Express) and the fact that at least the front quarter of the crowd is a fenced-off VIP section, leaving punters who have paid well over £100 for the privilege stuck with a bad view.
Having a press ticket I was fortunate enough to be allowed into the “Gold Circle” at the front, but that I had a great view of the stage didn’t help assuage the feeling that the festival was split in two, for media and industry types like me, but also for people who had forked out lots of money. Wonder’s message of “love, light and song” – the name of his current tour – felt a little diluted when his crowd was divided along the lines of wealth and status.
Those gripes aside, Wonder put on a show that, even in its most wallowing moments, was impossible to argue with. Everyone in attendance was lucky to bear witness to a living legend playing some of the greatest songs of the past 100 years. Everyone not in attendance should blast them out immediately.
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