British Summer Time: Stevie Wonder
Hyde Park, London
12th July 2025
There are very few living legends whose name alone triggers instant reverence, but that dwindling list has to include Stevie Wonder. Tom Parry was on hand in London’s Hyde Park to find out whether an iconic performer with one of the world’s most recognisable back catalogues can still deliver.
The yellowing grass of Hyde Park was covered in picnic blankets when I arrived a few hours ahead of Stevie Wonder’s sell-out headliner set. Approaching the peak of the latest heatwave, many people in the 65,000 audience were searching for a scrap of shade, saving themselves for the appearance of one of the biggest names in music for his first show in London since his previous appearance in the same setting almost exactly six years ago. Expectations seemed to be running understandably high, and a three-hour show was promised.
Ahead of Stevie, Ezra Collective were the final warm-up act, fresh from a triumphant Glastonbury appearance. Now firmly established in the big league, the five-piece rattled through a bouncy, funky and infectious selection of their best songs, bringing tens of thousands of people to their feet, even the picnic blanket lingerers. They have become an incredibly slick and proficient live act, smoothly merging riveting Afrobeat rhythms harnessed by the outstanding drummer and band leader Femi Koleoso with jazz and soul, a pot pourri of influences which they put together in a way which makes you want to dance and smile.
As the sun started to dip somewhere over Edgware Road at the top of the park, Stevie was brought on stage by two of his children, several of whom are part of his large ensemble of backing musicians and singers. The roar from the crowd was one of immense affection, a celebration of the return of a much-loved icon who evidently means so much to so many. Instead of diving straight into the music, the 75-year-old – a Motown child prodigy known to everyone as Little Stevie more than six decades ago – took the microphone and delivered a beautifully earnest speech about the importance of love in a world full of hate. From anyone else it might have sounded trite. It might even have elicited a few groans. Coming from Stevie Wonder, who was wearing a splendid white jacket embroidered with silver star depictions of Marvin Gaye and John Lennon, it was genuinely touching.
This seemingly unrehearsed introduction (maybe I’m wrong, but the band didn’t seem too sure about what was being said) led perfectly into the first number, Love’s In Need of Love Today, a plaintive song with sentiments perfectly fitting in today’s anger-fuelled world. It was also something only a megastar could do; a gentle, soothing song to begin a gig as gigantic as this one. From this platform, Stevie segued easily into a cover version of John Lennon’s Imagine, with minimal accompaniment, again something he’d undoubtedly decided fitted the moment.
It was not until the fourth song, Master Blaster, that the show really hit its stride, with an opening lyric so ideal that it could have been written just for the occasion – ‘Everyone’s feeling pretty / It’s hotter than July / Though the world’s full of problems / They couldn’t touch us even if they tried’. From that, we were thrown straight into the throbbing funk of Higher Ground. The band were seamless, brilliantly replicating the mood of the song in its original 1970s form. What was really special about this performance was the musicianship of the man himself. Stevie Wonder, switching from his emblematic Clavinet keyboard to another keyboard, with some of his distinctive electronic harmonica thrown in, proved that his virtuosity is very much intact. A completely solo show without such a breadth of backing players would have been equally satisfying.
Corinne Bailey Rae came on to duet on the Sly Stone song Everybody Is A Star, a tribute to the recently deceased soul legend. It could have been just hit after hit, and most of it was, spanning his youthful Motown classics up to Songs In The Key Of Life. A few excellent chosen covers were added in too.
What interrupted the flow though was an unnecessarily long break in which various other singers took over lead vocals. His need for a pause during the marathon three-hour set was of course understandable, but it would have lost nothing if this interval, during which most people around me were distracted, had been removed altogether.
This interruption perhaps slowed down the pace of an otherwise electrifying flurry of adored hits, a heartwarming bath of balmy loveliness. Stevie saved the best for last – Superstition, As and Another Star – and we would have all been very happy with even more. I cherished every second of being in the presence of a true original still possessed with once-in-a-generation musical talent.
~
Words by Tom Parry, you can find his author’s archive here plus on Twitter and his website
Official photos supplied, as credited
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