Stevie Wonder is coming to Philly in October calling for ‘joy over anger’
The ‘Sing Your Song! As We Fix Out Nation's Broken Heart’ tour is playing two shows in Pennsylvania, and hitting other swing states.
Stevie Wonder is going on a 10-city tour that will bring him to the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia on Oct. 12.
The tour is called “Sing Your Song! As We Fix Out Nation’s Broken Heart” in keeping with the musical genius’ new single “Can We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart?,” his first new music to be released in four years.
A statement announcing the concerts said that the tour is timed to the height of a “critical election season and a pivotal juncture in American politics and culture,” and is a call for “joy over anger, kindness over recrimination, peace over war.”
In “Can We Fix Our Nation’s Heart?,” Wonder sings, “People pushing and shouting and fighting through the haze, and all this sadness, madness, help me take away the pain, it’s gotta change … Can we fix our nation’s broken heart?”
The tour begins in Pittsburgh on Oct. 8, and along with dates in New York, Minneapolis, and Baltimore, it winds its way through the Midwestern and East Coast swing states that are expected to determine the outcome of the presidential election.
Wonder, who performed at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, is doing two dates in Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Georgia, as well as in Michigan.
In 2016, Wonder performed in Philadelphia on the eve of the presidential election in support of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. In an interview with The Inquirer then, he said “I have always believed that America is great. We’re just going to make it greater.”
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“We artists are moved, as musicians and songwriters and singers, we’re moved by our society, because basically art is just a reflection of society,” he said, and added that he supported Clinton because of her experience in working in government while comparing voting for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump to allowing Wonder himself to drive your car.
“If you had an emergency situation and needed to go to the hospital, and you had to get there right away, would you want me driving your car? [No], because I’m not an experienced driver.”
Tickets for the Wells Fargo show go on sale on Friday, Sept. 20, at Noon via Ticketmaster.
“As a special thank you, Stevie Wonder will be offering a designated amount of complimentary tickets to those in our communities who are already working tirelessly to fix our nation’s broken heart,” the statement read. Details of how those tickets would be made available, and who would qualify, have not been announced.