Brian McCollum

Detroit Free Press Pop Music Critic

Stevie Wonder's personal trophy collection already includes 22 Grammy Awards, an Oscar, the Kennedy Center Honors and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Now the iconic Motown star will have a particularly prestigious one to add to the list: the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Wonder will be bestowed the award — the nation's highest civilian honor — by President Barack Obama in a Nov. 24 White House ceremony, four days after a homecoming concert at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

"Stevie Wonder is one of the world's most gifted singer-songwriters," the White House said in a statement Monday.

He'll be the second Detroit-related singer to win the medal of freedom — Aretha Franklin was honored by President George W. Bush in 2005 — and the 33nd musical recipient since it was established in 1960. Composer Stephen Sondheim is also among this year's 16 honorees.

Wonder was Motown's best-selling solo act and one of the 20th Century's most prolific hit-makers, placing 46 singles in Billboard's pop Top 40 and more than 70 on the R&B charts. His biggest hits have endured for decades: "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours," "Superstition," "Higher Ground," "Sir Duke," "I Wish."

It's especially fitting that he'll be presented the award by Obama: Wonder is a longtime Democratic backer and was a prominent supporter during both of Obama's presidential campaigns — performing at rallies, releasing a 2012 tribute single and playing at the 2013 Inaugural Ball.

The adoration runs both ways.

"If I had one musical hero, it would have to be Stevie Wonder," Obama told Rolling Stone magazine as a presidential contender in 2008.

It comes during a high-profile stretch for the 64-year-old Wonder. He just launched his most extensive U.S. tour in half a decade, performing his venerated 1976 double album, "Songs in the Key of Life." The tour will hit the Palace on Nov. 20.

Wonder told the Free Press last month that he's in the homestretch of work on two new albums, including one record of new material and another that reworks some of his vintage songs.

The Medal of Freedom will recognize a storied career that stretches back more than half a century. Wonder first topped the pop and R&B charts in 1963, splashing onto the scene as a 12-year-old wunderkind with the ebullient "Fingertips — Pt. 2."

Born Stevland Judkins in Saginaw, and blind since shortly after birth, he caught the attention of Berry Gordy Jr. after being led to Motown by the Miracles' Ron White.

After a few years of recording material largely written by others, Wonder quickly blossomed into his own, penning his own songs and developing an immediately identifiable vocal style.

By the early 1970s he was a full-on creative force, churning out a series of records heralded for their artistic vision while scoring as mass commercial successes: "Music of My Mind" (1972), "Talking Book" (1972), "Innervisions" (1973), "Fulfillingness' First Finale" (1974) and "Songs in the Key of Life" (1976).

"Those are as brilliant a set of five albums as we've ever seen," Obama said in his 2008 Rolling Stone interview.

Contact Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.