60 free Stevie Wonder trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
47 free Stevie Wonder trivia questions with answers. Stevie Wonder signed to Motown at 11, topped the Hot 100 at 13 and then, in the five years after his 21st birthday, made a run of albums that many musicians consider the greatest sustained streak in pop history. This quiz covers the whole story: the Saginaw birth and the incubator that cost him his sight, Little Stevie and 'Fingertips', the flop years and Sylvia Moy's rescue, the synthesizer partnership behind Music of My Mind and Talking Book, the 1973 car crash, three Album of the Year Grammys in a row, and the 1980s hits with McCartney, the Oscar and the Martin Luther King Day campaign. The easy questions ask what he won the Oscar for and which holiday 'Happy Birthday' fought for. The hard ones want his first Motown stipend, his 1971 royalty rate, who blocked 'Sir Duke' from No. 1 in Britain and which Detroit street now bears his name. It suits a Motown-themed pub round, a soul playlist night or a birthday party for anyone who owns Innervisions on vinyl. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on Wonder, his albums and his songs, and each question shows the sentence that backs it up.
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Q 01In which Michigan city was Stevie Wonder born in 1950?
Saginaw
His family moved to Detroit when he was four, and he sang in the choir at Whitestone Baptist Church there.
Q 02What medical condition, linked to his premature birth, caused Stevie Wonder's blindness?
Retinopathy of prematurity
He was born six weeks early, and the oxygen-rich incubator air of the era contributed to the disease that detaches the retinas.
Q 03Which Motown label signed the 11-year-old Stevie Wonder in 1961?
Tamla
A member of the Miracles took him and his mother to the audition, and Berry Gordy signed him on the spot.
Q 04Which member of the Miracles heard the young Stevie sing his own song and brought him to Motown?
Ronnie White
The song he sang was his own composition 'Lonely Boy'; producer Clarence Paul then gave him the name Little Stevie Wonder.
Q 05What was Stevie Wonder's weekly stipend under his first Motown contract?
$2.50
Because he was a minor, his royalties were held in trust until he turned 21, and Motown supplied a private tutor on tour.
Q 06Stevie Wonder's first hit, 'Fingertips', was recorded live at which Chicago venue?
The Regal Theater
The recording came from a Motortown Revue stop and was released on the album Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius.
Q 07How old was Stevie Wonder when 'Fingertips' hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100?
13
That made him the youngest solo artist ever to top the chart, and the single was simultaneously No. 1 on the R&B chart, a first.
Q 08Which future Motown star played drums on 'Fingertips'?
Marvin Gaye
He had been drumming for Wonder and other Motown acts before his own singing career took off.
Q 09On the live recording of 'Fingertips', a replacement bassist is heard shouting what during the encore?
What key? What key?
The bassists had already swapped over for the next act, Mary Wells, when Wonder unexpectedly came back to sing.
Q 10Which Motown songwriter saved Stevie Wonder from being dropped, then co-wrote 'Uptight (Everything's Alright)'?
Sylvia Moy
After the flop years, 'Uptight' relaunched him, and the 'Little' was dropped from his name at the same time.
Q 11Stevie Wonder co-wrote which song that became a No. 1 hit for Smokey Robinson and the Miracles in 1970?
The Tears of a Clown
It had first appeared unnoticed as the last track on their 1967 LP Make It Happen before a 1970 single release made it a smash.
Q 12Wonder's 1968 instrumental album was released under what backwards pseudonym?
Eivets Rednow
The mostly harmonica album barely registered; its single, a cover of 'Alfie', peaked at No. 66.
Q 13Which was Stevie Wonder's first-ever self-produced single?
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Q 21How many days after Innervisions came out was Wonder nearly killed in a car crash?
Three
The rental car hit the back of a flatbed farm truck; he spent four days in a coma and permanently lost part of his sense of smell.
Q 22Which sense did Wonder partially lose as a result of his 1973 car accident?
Smell
He suffered a fractured skull and cerebral contusion; his sense of taste was also affected, but only temporarily.
Q 23Which 1976 Album of the Year winner thanked Wonder, 'who didn't make an album this year'?
Paul Simon
Wonder had won the award at the two previous ceremonies and would win it again the following year, so the joke landed.
Many of his earlier hits, including 'My Cherie Amour' and 'Uptight', were co-written with Henry Cosby.
Q 14Which former Motown secretary and songwriter did Stevie Wonder marry in 1970?
Syreeta Wright
They divorced amicably in 1972 but kept working together; she co-wrote lyrics for Where I'm Coming From and sang on Conversation Peace.
Q 15Hearing which electronic group's album Zero Time got Wonder hooked on synthesizers around 1971?
Tonto's Expanding Head Band
He hired its two members, Robert Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil, as associate producers, and their custom TONTO synth shaped his classic albums.
Q 16Wonder's unusually generous July 1971 Motown contract gave him what royalty rate?
14%
He had let his first contract lapse on his 21st birthday and used a stack of new synthesizer recordings as leverage.
Q 17Which 1972 album is generally considered the first of Wonder's 'classic period'?
Music of My Mind
It peaked at only No. 21 but was the first fruit of his partnership with Margouleff and Cecil, and he spent that summer opening for a giant British rock band.
Q 18Which rock band did Stevie Wonder open for on their 1972 American tour?
The Rolling Stones
The support slot helped his new synthesizer-driven music cross over to white rock audiences.
Q 19The famous riff on 'Superstition' was played on which instrument?
Hohner Clavinet
The song began as an improvisation over a drum beat a visiting British guitarist came up with in the studio, and that guitarist was promised his own version as payment.
Q 20Which guitarist was originally meant to release 'Superstition' before Wonder?
Jeff Beck
His version came out in March 1973 on the Beck, Bogert & Appice album, months after Wonder's had already gone to No. 1.
Q 24Songs in the Key of Life was the first album by an American artist to do what on the Billboard chart?
Debut at No. 1
Only two Elton John albums had done it before, and Wonder's record stayed on top for 14 non-consecutive weeks.
Q 25Which song on Songs in the Key of Life was written about Wonder's newborn daughter Aisha?
Isn't She Lovely
He refused to shorten the six-minute track for a single, so it became an airplay-only hit.
Q 26Which singer kept 'Sir Duke' off No. 1 in the UK despite singing backing vocals on Wonder's album?
Deniece Williams
Her single 'Free' held the UK top spot; in the US, 'Sir Duke' spent three weeks at No. 1.
Q 27Wonder's 1975 Motown contract, then the largest deal ever for a recording star, was worth how much?
$37 million
The seven-year, seven-album deal gave him full artistic control after he had seriously considered quitting music to move to Ghana.
Q 28Which 1979 soundtrack album was Wonder's first digital recording, made with the Melodian?
Secret Life of Plants
The mainly instrumental album accompanied a documentary about plants; he then used digital recording for everything that followed.
Q 29Wonder's single 'Happy Birthday' was a vehicle for his campaign to create which national holiday?
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
The song appeared on his 1980 album, his first to be certified platinum.
Q 30Which was Stevie Wonder's first platinum-certified album?
Hotter than July
The 1980 record also gave the world 'Master Blaster (Jammin')' and the ballad 'Lately'.