Since he was born prematurely, six weeks before the date, in a hospital in Saginaw, Michigan, a succession of events marked the life of Stevland Hardaway Morris, better known as Stevie wonder. Today marks 74 years since his eventful arrival into the world, which received him in an incubator where an excess of oxygen caused a retinopathy, which prevented the correct development of their retinas. Stevland, the third child of Lula Mae Hardaway and the second of her husband Calvin Judkins, went blind shortly after opening his eyes. That early loss was not the only one. When he was four years old, his parents divorced and he found himself estranged from his father. His mother took him to Detroit with her two brothers.
Blindness was not an impediment for Steve to learn to master several complex instruments, such as the piano that a neighbor lent him, the harmonica, which his uncle had given him, and a drum kit. Likewise, he spent hours and hours listening to a city radio where genres such as blues and R&B reigned.
Music occupied a very significant place from an early age and the choir of the Whitestone Baptist Church It was key to his musical development. At the age of eight he was singing as a soloist. His childhood, in which he managed to gain a reputation in the neighborhood for his extraordinary ability to sing and play instruments, was full of hardships. The his mother, Lula Mae Hardaway who cleaned houses, gave herself a second chance with the father of her first children, Paul Hardaway, who coincidentally had the same last name as her. The man made his living in a bagel factory. The couple who already had one child, in this second stage had two more.
The little prodigy was soon discovered by the industry. A musician named Ronnie White, member of Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, passed the information to the record company of the great African-American stars, Motown. Stevie was only 12 years old. Her experience so far included church, birthday parties, and some street performances on some neighborhood corner with a friend who called themselves Stevie & John. The producer Berry Gordy, founder of the label, renamed the boy “Little Stevie Wonder.” Throughout 1963 the release of his first four albums took place. Fame transcended the neighborhood and the borders, becoming number one in sales in the United States, above the band from the United Kingdom, The Beatles.
Being a child, Motown took care of his education. He was sent to a school for the blind in Michigan and he was accompanied by a tutor on his tours. During the first decade, Stevie Wonder accumulated hits, one after another, with the predominant soul sound of the record company that was a hit factory and aimed to have a high rotation of songs on the radio.
When his voice began to grow, his contract with the record company began to falter. It was a woman, the label’s first female lyricist and composer, Sylvia Moy who convinced Gordy to let Stevie stay with them. But there was an agreement there. She should create a success for him. This is how it was born Uptight (Everything’s Alright) which gave the singer his first two Grammy Award nominations at age 15. This song reached number 3 on the Billboard charts.
Throughout his life, the soul singer had three marriages. and she had nine children with five women. He gave his first yes, I want in 1970, when he was only 20 years old, to the singer, songwriter and former secretary of Motown, Syreeta Wright. They worked together on an album that dealt with social issues, at the same time as Marvin Gaye, who overshadowed the album in the face of comparisons. The love with Syreeta ended soon. Within two years they were already divorced. He bet on love again in 2001. His next woman was a fashion designer named Kay Millard. The relationship didn’t work out either but it lasted longer than the previous one. The divorce was signed in 2012. The third and current woman is Tomeeka Bracy, with whom he has been married since 2017.
Who he had his children with is another chapter. So far she has 9 with five women. The name of the first is unknown. With his first wife he had none. His first daughter, named Aisha It was the result of a relationship with a girl who had gone to ask for a job as a secretary at the record company, called Yolanda Simmons. He dedicated the song to the girl Isn’t she lovely. Together with Yolanda he had another son, Keita, who was born in 1977.
After Yolanda, he had a relationship with the singer Melody McCulleywho gave him a son named Mumtaz Morris, who is currently dedicated to music.
Later two more children arrived, Sophia and Kwame, which are believed to be from the same mother. With the designer Kai Millard It was the first time that he had children while married. With her he had Kailand, another musician, and Mandla, who was born on his birthday. By divorcing her, she gained joint custody of the boys. Tomeeka Bracy gave him two children before the wedding in 2017. A Zahia already Nyah, eighth and ninth children. In 2014, rumors had emerged that the couple was going to have triplets, but the singer came out to deny them on a television show. The View this year. And he jokingly said, “How many do I have, 22 kids?”
The musical star, with many hits that are part of history, tries to have some privacy in his life and does it quite well. In any case, Tomeeka Bracy accompanies him at events and awards ceremonies.
In 2015 she told GC that the song dedicated to Aisha also reminds her of her other daughters and Bracy’s daughters. She expressed on that occasion: “When I sing ‘Is n’t She Lovely’, yes, I think of Aisha, my oldest daughter, but the song also makes me think of Nyah, my newborn daughter. She is lovely too” and she added: “Relationships generate experiences: thoughts, emotions, expressions. All those things create music.”
