Stevie Wonder Honored With All-Star GRAMMY Salute

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The music luminaries that partied at Los Angeles’ Staples Center at Sunday night’s Grammys moved the celebration across the street Tuesday to the Nokia Theater to honor 25-time Grammy-winner Stevie Wonder.

Stevie Wonder: Songs In The Key Of Life - An All-Star GRAMMY Salute was presented by The Recording Academy, AEG Ehrlich Ventures and CBS, where today’s top artists paid homage to Wonder’s iconic career by covering songs by the musician to celebrate his incomparable songbook on Tuesday, Feb. 10.

Superstar performances among the show’s highlights included a surprise appearance by Beyoncé alongside Ed Sheeran and guitar great Gary Clark Jr. with other fiery performances by Janelle Monae, Jill Scott, John Legend, Pharrell Williams, Jennifer Hudson, Babyface and Ariana Grande, to name a few.

Nonetheless, the evening ended with an emotional performance of “Isn’t She Lovely” by Ne-Yo, a song inspired by the birth of Wonder’s daughter Aisha Morris. During this time, LL Cool J asked the audience to close their eyes to get a glimpse of Wonder’s life, saying: “He’s loved [Aisha] for 40 years, but has only seen her in his mind.”

With very few dry eyes left in the audience, Morris herself joined Ne-Yo onstage to change the lyrics of “Isn’t She Lovely” to honor her proud, beaming father sitting in the first row.

“I could not leave this building, this planet, without letting you all know how much I thank you. I love you. I love you, first of all, because the god that I serve says we should love everyone. I also love you because it feels better to love than to hate… I believe that if we could just come together — because we must come together, because we are at spiritual warfare — we must, without question, let the world know that love is king and queen… I encourage all of us as artists to write songs about love. Love is the key, and you’ve given me love, and I thank you for it.”

The two-hour special will be broadcast in HDTV and 5.1 surround sound on the CBS Television Network on Monday, Feb. 16 from 9 – 11 p.m. ET/PT.

(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

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