STEVIE WONDER AT THE WHITE HOUSE

Normally, I'm not one to use all capitalized letters to garner attention from your eyes, but I got goosebumps when I saw this today.

Stevie Wonder is the latest recipient of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, aka one of the most bad-ass mofos to ever to live on the planet. In honor of this achievement, he's performing at the White House tomorrow for an hour, with President Obama presenting the award to The 8th Wonder of the World after the concert.

"Over the years Wonder has delivered 32 No. 1 R&B and Pop singles, 49 Top 40 R&B and Pop singles, and garnered 25 Grammy Awards, as well as the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996. He collected an Academy Award for the 1984 hit “I Just Called to Say I Love You” from the film The Woman in Red. In 1989, he was inducted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame. In 1999, Wonder became the youngest honoree of the Kennedy Center Honors. He was inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 2002, and in 2004 he won the Johnny Mercer Award in recognition of a lifetime of outstanding creative work. In 2005, the Library of Congress added Wonder’s 1976 double album “Songs in the Key of Life” to the National Recording Registry, which recognizes recordings that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States.”"

*TANGENT*
Which also cements another reason for my love of Obama, bringing the soul into the White House. Seriously, what artists performed for Bush? Michael Buble? F*** that, I want the funk. I mean, I knew I wanted Obama to be Prez when I saw his speech back in 2004 at the DNC, but the moment I started to donate money to his campaign was when I heard "Signed Sealed Delivered" on his campaign trail. And then I gave even more money when I saw the Wonderlove perform at a campaign stop. Well okay, I'm not that shallow, but I will feign shallowness to magnify my love for Stevie.

*CONTINUED BLOG POST*

Thursday, February 26, 2009, at 8 p.m. PT/ET on PBS is when it airs, so for you Seattle-ites, tune in to KCTS9 tomorrow. I'll be camped out on my couch with my Stevie shirt, and albums in arms length distance.

"The concert takes place February 25 and will include performances by Wonder himself and Tony Bennett, Diana Krall, Martina McBride, Esperanza Spalding, Will.i.am, and the gospel duo Mary Mary, among others." - PBS News

Set your TiVos, VCRs, DVRs, eyeballs to tomorrow at 5pm.

Check out http://www.pbs.org/inperformanceatthewhitehouse/ for a promo video, and check back there later; I think they will be putting performance footage on the site after it airs.

*TANGENT*
Being an intern at KCTS9, I can get DVD copies of the show for anyone that wants it, which should be everyone...