Stevie Wonder urged his fans to choose “love over hate” and expressed dismay over the troubles in the world at a concert devoted to one of his classic albums.
The legend performed Sunday in Hyde Park for the British Summertime Festival. He opened his concert by telling fans he loved them all in these difficult times, and asked them to live in positivity.
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“I encourage you to choose love over hate. It’s just that simple. Choose love over hate, right over wrong, kind over meanness. Hope over no hope at all.”
The 66-year-old’s Grammy-winning, 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life was the focus of the concert; Wonder perfomed the album in its entirety.
Before launching into the set Wonder went on to say that he was happy that the album was still significant almost 40 years on but also unhappy that “the songs and the words that we talk about, those conditions still exist in the world and that hurts my heart.”
He also referenced the Black Lives Matter movement, telling the crowd, “All life does matter, but the reason that I say black lives matter is because we are the original people of this world. So in essence, everyone here has some black in you. You’ve all got some soul in you so stop denying your culture.”
Wonder played for over two hours to a sellout London crowd of 65,000 people, closing this year’s British Summertime series.
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