Review and setlist: Stevie Wonder is magnificent and inspirational on the ‘Sing Your Song! As We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart’ tour

Let’s get right to the only-in-Philly part of Stevie Wonder’s brilliantly playful, dazzlingly musical, and wholly inspirational “Sing Your Song! As We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart” tour, which on Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia made a swing-state stop.

“I remember Philly from when I was a kid — the Uptown Theater!,” Wonder said, recalling the North Broad Street showplace where in 1966 he celebrated his 16th birthday.

That shout-out came after introductory remarks Wonder made promoting love, understanding, and voter registration while flanked by his children Aisha and Kailan Morris.

“We spend too much time fighting and arguing,” he said. “I just don’t believe that’s the purpose of life. And if you don’t agree with me, I’m still going to love you.”

Those remarks mentioned no political candidate by name, though Wonder, who endorsed Kamala Harris for president on Friday, did throw a jab at former President Donald Trump’s false remarks about Haitian immigrants during the September debate, saying “I know not to go there, but were they eating dogs? C’mon, lets keep it real.”

Wonder followed that by performing his new single, “Can We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart,” on a kalimba-like guitar-piano-harp hybrid instrument called a harpejji, which he has mastered in the last decade, because he’s Stevie Wonder.

From there the show dove headlong into Wonder’s impossibly rich and generous spirited catalog, beginning with “As If You Read My Mind,” from 1980′s Hotter Than July.

The 74-year-old polymath took a seat behind two keyboards and next to a grand piano, fronting a massive band assembled on an elongated elevated platform in a tableau reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper.

Behind him were six backup singers, five horn players, and seven other musicians, including keyboard player Cory Henry. Off to his right, there were 11 string players, plus a conductor. That makes 32, by my count, though I might have been missing someone. It was crowded up there.

Add one more: singer Sheléa McDonald, a Wonder protégé who came on partway through the show to give the star a breather. She sang a lustrous version of Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend.”

After she followed that with a song of her own, “Something’s Coming,” she and Wonder started vamping on Isaac Hayes’ “Theme From Shaft.” One of the improvised question-and-answer lyrics was the somewhat awkwardly phrased: “Who are the people in what city that make the best celebration of music in live performance?”

The answer, of course was; “Philly!” Hearing the word spoken out loud made Wonder’s face light up with an idea for a left turn to surprise the band with.

That led to a run of Wonderized Sound of Philly classics. First up: McFadden & Whitehead’s 1979 disco hit “Ain’t No Stoppin Us Now.” As the band caught on and gathered steam for a song used as a hortatory anthem by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1983 and Barack Obama in 2008, Wonder threw the band another feel-good curve ball: The O’Jays “Love Train.” The band picked up on that one pretty quick.

Those weren’t the only audibles called throughout the evening in which Wonder proved an amiable and undiminished singer whose genius as a vocalist is often overshadowed by his multifarious other musical gifts.

He couldn’t resist prefacing “You Are the Sunshine of My life,” with a taste of the country & western standard “You Are My Sunshine.” He introduced it as “a little country song. But you know, I like all kinds of music.”

Before he sang his 1967 hit “I Was Made to Love Her,” he got the notion that he wanted to pay tribute to Tony Bennett, so he added “For Once in My Life” — written by Ron Miller and Orlando Murden, but a hit for both Wonder and his late friend.

And later on in the evening, he again picked up his harpejji and began a new song with seemingly unfinished lyrics about how presidents and world leaders need to rearrange their priorities with the unity of all people in mind.

It was utopian, and sweet, and a bit of a muddle, but then the song effortlessly transformed itself into Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me,” and Stevie Wonder was urging us all to stand by each other, and all things seemed possible.

In recent years, consensus has gathered that Wonder’s run from Music of My Mind in 1972 to Songs in the Key of Life in 1976 is the greatest five-year, five-album run in pop music history. You’ll get no argument from me, and probably not from Wonder either, as he drew from that golden period for the heart of the show.

I couldn’t find anything to complain about during the entirety of Wonder’s 2 1/2 hours, though I did overhear people who were agitated that he didn’t play “As” as they were walking out.

I even found myself singing along to “I Just Called to Say I Love You,” which in my more cynical days I would describe as sappy and cloying. But it’s hard to be cynical in the presence of Stevie Wonder.

The incomparable stretch of the show came about two-thirds of the way in, with three songs from Key of Life and one from 1973′s Innervisions.

“Village Ghetto Land” sparkled, with Wonder’s voice accompanied only by the mini-orchestra’s strings. That urban narrative gave way to a more rousing one in the rugged “Living for the City,” which then flowed into an ecstatic celebration of Wonder’s musical lineage “Sir Duke” and the unabashedly nostalgic funk masterpiece “I Wish.” Magnificent.

From the hopeful spirit that Wonder sent shimmering through an arena that filled with a racially mixed crowd of lifelong fans who knew they were in for a very special date night with greatness to the remarkable musicianship everywhere in evidence on stage, it was all enough to make you to feel fortunate to live in a battleground state.

Sure, you have to put up with the noise of an incessant barrage of toxic political ads and live in a constant state of what’s-next? apprehension. But on the upside, Stevie Wonder will come to town and play music for you.

Stevie Wonder set list at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Oct. 12, 2024:

“Can We Fix This Nation’s Broken Heart”

“As If You Read My Mind”

“Master Blaster (Jammin’)”

“Higher Ground”

“You Are My Sunshine”

“Your Are the Sunshine of My Life”

“For Once in My Life”

“I Was Made to Love Her”

“Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours”

“My Cherie Amour”

“Overjoyed”

“You’ve Got a Friend,” sung by Sheléa

Something’s Comin’,” sung by Sheléa

“Contusion”

“Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now”

“Love Train”

“Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing”

“Village Ghetto Land”

“Living for the City”

“Sir Duke”

“I Wish”

“Isn’t She Lovely”

“Ribbon in the Sky”

“Lately”

“I Just Called to Say I Love You”

“Stand by Me”

““Superstition”

“Do I Do”

“Another Star”