Stevie Wonder announces to audience: I’m having a kidney transplant op
SOUL superstar Stevie Wonder stunned fans at an open-air concert last night by announcing he is to undergo a kidney transplant operation later this year.
The 69-year-old Superstition singer revealed at the British Summer Time festival in London’s Hyde Park that he is due to have surgery in September, and will ‘take a break’ from performing until he recovers.
He assured the sell-out crowd that he was fine and had already found a suitable donor.
Addressing his 50,000-strong audience, he said: ‘I want to tell you something now because I don’t want you to hear this through rumours.
‘After this show I am only going to do three more shows and then take a break because I’m going to have surgery.
‘I’m having a kidney transplant in September this year. Don’t worry, I’m fine, I have got a donor. I want you to hear this from me.’
Stevie made the announcement at the end of his set and will play his next gig on Tuesday at the 3Arena in Dublin.
He will then fly back to America where he will play in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday before his final preoperation show on Friday in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Rumours had been circulating about his health recently, with speculation that he was suffering from kidney failure and needing dialysis surfacing in the Detroit Free Press.
The musician Joan Belgrave, a friend of the Motown legend, told the paper a few days ago that Wonder ‘has got some health challenges’ but added: ‘He’s in great spirits. You would never know anything is going on. That’s how he wants it, and that’s how he wants to keep it,’ she said.
The speculation may have convinced him to go public.
His illness did not stop him belting out his greatest hits in Hyde Park last night, including Do I Do, My Cherie Amour and I Just Called to Say I Love You.
He also played an emotional version of former Beatle John Lennon’s Imagine.
Stevie performed after his close friend Lionel Richie appeared on stage, and was joined by British singer Corinne Bailey Rae.
The veteran singer has been performing since he was a child, first reaching number one in the US Billboard charts in 1963 with Fingertips, at the age of just 13 and then known as ‘Little’ Stevie Wonder.
Michigan-born Stevie was diagnosed as blind at six weeks old. He lost his sight because an incubator he was placed in contained too much oxygen.
This caused a condition called retinopathy of prematurity, where the growth of the eyes ceases before it should, causing the retinas to detach.
The singer, whose real name is Stevland Hardaway Morris, has been married three times and has nine children.