It’s a bit of a wonder that it’s taken this long for Stevie Wonder to land a Las Vegas residency. With the number of music legends that have set up shop in Vegas, whether for a week at a time or for multi-year runs, Wonder has almost been conspicuous in his absence. The soul/R&B icon rectifies that this week with the launch of his Stevie Wonder Song Party: A Celebration of Life, Love and Music residency at the Park Theater, which is also home to Bruno Mars, Cher and Ricky Martin, and will soon host residencies from Lady Gaga and Queen + Adam Lambert.
With a career that dates back to when he was just 11 years old, Wonder has cultivated fans across multiple generations, and is just as at home with a residency in a resort as he is headlining a hip music festival full of acts decades younger than him (as he did during his last Vegas concert, at the 2015 Life Is Beautiful festival). Wonder signed his first record deal with Motown founder Berry Gordy in 1961, and scored his first major hit in 1963 with the mostly instrumental live recording “Fingertips.” That was only the beginning of a remarkable string of hit songs and acclaimed albums that have continued for more than 50 years, all the way through the 2016 Golden Globe-nominated single “Faith,” a duet with Ariana Grande from the soundtrack to the animated movie Sing.
Wonder’s early Motown hits include “Uptight (Everything’s Alright),” “A Place in the Sun,” “I Was Made to Love Her,” “For Once in My Life” and “My Cherie Amour,” and during the course of the 1960s, he took greater control over his own music as a songwriter and producer. Wonder’s 1970s albums were increasingly bold, embracing more experimental sounds and including strong social commentary in the lyrics. That led to ambitious, acclaimed releases like 1972’s Talking Book and 1976’s Songs in the Key of Life, which was inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry and named one of the 500 greatest albums of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. In 2016, Slate dubbed Wonder’s “classic period” from 1972-1976 “the greatest creative run in the history of popular music.”
Even while exploring the range of his creativity, Wonder still released plenty of hit singles, including “I Wish,” “Sir Duke,” “Superstition,” “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” and “Living for the City.” The pace of his original output has slowed a bit in recent years, but at the height of his career he released enough material for several musical lifetimes, and he still isn’t finished, with another album (Through the Eyes of Wonder, his first since 2005) in the works for next year. “We’re living in a time where there’s so much going on in the world,” Wonder said at a May concert in L.A. kicking off the Song Party event. “But the one thing that we know for sure that we can celebrate is life, love and music.”
Park Theater at Park MGM, 8 p.m. Aug. 3-4, 8 & 10-11, starting at $69 plus tax and fee. 844.600.7275
