Stevie Wonder Plays Songs in the Key of Life in Amsterdam

There was a massive crowd taking the metro in the direction of Bijlmer ArenA on Wednesday evening. 17,000 people were heading to the Ziggo Dome, and many had waited more than a decade for this night. Stevie Wonder hadn’t been in the Netherlands since 2014. At 76, he returned for a single performance, with an album that turns 50 this year.

12 Years After North Sea Jazz, He Picked Amsterdam

His last Dutch appearance was at North Sea Jazz in Rotterdam in 2014, and his last solo concert here was in 2008. The show in Amsterdam was announced on 8 September. Tickets went on sale on 11 September, and the hall sold out.

The concert is part of an 18-date tour on which he performs Songs in the Key of Life from the first track to the last. According to a local media review, Wonder started at ten past eight, took a 15-minute break around the halfway point, and played 21 songs in all. He closed the show with a cover of Imagine, sung by his daughter Zaiah Morris with her father on piano, and Superstition.

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What Makes This Album Deserve a Whole Tour

On 28 September 1976, Stevie Wonder released Songs in the Key of Life as a double LP plus a seven-inch EP. It contains 21 songs and spent 14 weeks at the top of the US charts. The album won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1977, and Wonder also won Producer of the Year.

It’s the record people reach for when they want to explain Wonder. Rolling Stone named it its fourth pick on its 2020 list of the 500 greatest albums ever made, and the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry in 2005. Sir Duke and I Wish both topped the charts. Isn’t She Lovely, which Wonder wrote for his newborn daughter, wasn’t released as a single in the US, but is considered a standard.

Harp, Harpejji and Three of His Children

The Amsterdam stage held around thirty musicians, including six backing vocalists and a string section. Wonder’s son joined him to sing “Have a Talk With God”, and two of Wonder’s youngest daughters also sang with him during the concert. Harpist Brandee Younger played on “If It’s Magic”. Wonder himself played the piano, harmonica, and the harpejji, a stringed instrument you tap like a keyboard.

The show opened with a recorded message asking the audience to close their eyes and listen with the ears of their eyes. Photos of his kids appeared on the screens during “Isn’t She Lovely”. Between songs, he spoke about the state of the world and love as the answer. The reviewer had only minor complaints about the sound: the strings in the background were hard to hear, and the bass was turned up a bit too much.

Elias Mazian, a Dutch singer and a lifelong fan, told a local television channel before the show that without Stevie Wonder there would be no R&B. There is nobody like Stevie, he said.

You Missed It? The Tour Isn’t Over Yet

Amsterdam was the last show on the European mainland, but the tour isn’t over yet. It crosses the water next, and all of these are a direct flight or train ride away:

Dublin, 3Arena, 1 November
London, The O2, 3 November
Manchester, Co-op Live, 8 November
Glasgow, OVO Hydro, 11 November

After that, the tour continues with six concerts in the US, starting at Madison Square Garden on 19 November and ending at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles on 19 December. Ticketmaster sells European tickets, and you can find what is left on the official tour site.

Sir Duke Before the First Note

The Amsterdam crowd will remember the moment before the music: 17,000 people singing “Sir Duke” on their own, with no band or accompaniment. Wonder answered a bit later, with the real thing as the fifth song of the night.