Wonder releases two songs ‘for the world to get better’
Kidney transplant was success, prolific singer says to dispel rumours
Stevie Wonder has had his kidney transplant and is doing very well, thank you.
In the first public acknowledgment that he had experienced the surgery since he announced his intention to undergo the knife in July 2019, the Detroitborn Motown legend said during a virtual news conference from Los Angeles Tuesday that he was feeling fine and in good postsurgery health.
“Let everybody know that I was blessed with a new kidney and that happened on Dec. 6, 2019,” said the veteran hitmaker in response to a Toronto Star question.
“And since I have been released from hospital, I’ve had the nurses make sure I take my medicine on time and I’m going to do for as long as I have to — even if it is for the rest of my life.
“I feel great! My voice feels great!” Wonder, 70, continued. “I feel like I’m about 40 right now and I just thank everyone for their prayers and their love, and I’m feeling great.”
Wonder’s health has been the subject of a number of social media rumours dating back to before his procedure.
“For all the people that have been listening to these rumours, let me tell you: If I’m feeling in some kind of way, I’ll let you know. We don’t want to have misinformation,” he said.
But the reason for the news conference was not to provide an update on his health, but to announce the immediate release of two songs and the formation of his own record label, So What’s the Fuss Music, distributed by Republic/Universal Music and named after a track off his 2005 album, “A Time to Love.”
Even though he’s generally been acknowledged as a prolific songwriter, the two tunes — “Where Is Our Love Song” and “Can’t Put It in the Hands of Fate” — are the first songs that the 25-time Grammy Award winner has released since 2016’s “Faith,” his duet with Ariana Grande that appeared in the film “Sing.” It’s also his first public release of a composed original since 2009’s “All About the Love Again, “performed at that year’s inauguration of then-president Barack Obama.
“Where Is Our Love Song,” a three-and-a-half-minute, midtempo R&B jam featuring Gary Clark Jr. on guitar and five of Wonder’s children on backing vocals, finds the singer and songwriter contemplating the positive aspects of life that he feels are missing in action.
“Where are our words of peace? Where is our prayer? Where are the things that we are not doing nearly enough of?” Wonder asked rhetorically.
“Where’s our respect for one another? What happened to that part? Where are words of hope: not the kind of hope that leaves others behind, but the kind of hope that lifts up all humankind. Where are our hope songs?”
“Can’t Put It in the Hands of Fate” is almost six and a half minutes long, a funky tune featuring contributions by U.S. rappers Rapsody, Cordae, CHICKA and Busta Rhymes.
“Here we are in a place where we’ve got to make a real decision about what the future holds for this nation,” said Wonder. “We can’t put voting in the hands of fate. The whole world is watching us and, for me, we’ve got to vote justice in and injustice out. That’s just what time it is.“
Wonder said that he began working on the melody for “Where Is Our Love Song” — he will donate 100 per cent of the profits from the single to the charity Feeding America — when he was 17, but only finished the lyrics recently.
He said that “Can’t Put It in the Hands of Fate” started out as a love song.
“Most recently, I was listening to the old things (Wonder’s own lyric-free compositions) and thinking about where we are in the world,” said the noted humanitarian.
During the wide-ranging conversation, Wonder touched on a wide variety of subjects ranging from the pandemic to policing to education.
It’s clear that change is on his mind and he’s hoping that his latest music, released to streaming services on Tuesday, will be a catalyst.
“I’m hoping that it will motivate people to make changes by voting; motivate people by knowing that we have to take action.
“I want for the world to get better … I want there to be a time when we can all go to the funeral of hate.
“That’s what I want. To me, that’s not impossible, we just have to get there.”