No Superbowl snub for Stevie Wonder
There’s no controversy, Stevie Wonder said.
The Motown legend appeared at a news conference Thursday featuring the Super Bowl pregame performers.
Before a reporter could ask a single question, Wonder lifted his microphone up and said: “If we didn’t want the Stones, we wouldn’t be here. We want the Stones.”
In the weeks leading up to Sunday’s game at Ford Field, some Detroiters, including Aretha Franklin √≥ who sat beside Wonder Thursday √≥ complained that the city’s Motown legacy was being snubbed with the choice of the Rolling Stones as the halftime entertainment.
Wonder put that to rest, saying he didn’t “have a problem with the Stones.”
“They even recorded two of my songs,” he said with a smile.
The Stones were scheduled to speak to the media at a news conference later Thursday afternoon.
Wonder will play a 12-minute set before the game, and Franklin will team on the national anthem with singer Aaron Neville, keyboardist Dr. John and a 150-member Detroit-based choir.
Wonder, a 21-time Grammy winner who was born in Saginaw, will join with singers John Legend, India.Arie and Joss Stone for the pregame show. They are expected to perform some of Wonder’s hits, as well as other Motown hits. In addition, the Four Tops will also perform prior to kickoff, but they will not be carried live on the ABC broadcast.
Neville said he was thrilled at the opportunity to perform alongside Detroit’s own “Queen of Soul.”
“I’m like a schoolboy about it,” he said. “I have butterflies.”
Neville, a New Orleans native, predicted the anthem would be a “bit of New Orleans and Motown mixed together.
Franklin talked about being asked in the past to perform at the Super Bowl and how excited she was to finally be able to do so in her hometown.
Near the end of the news conference, Franklin was asked whether she was surprised the big game was returning to Michigan, considering the subzero temperatures that plagued the 1982 game played at the Pontiac Silverdome.
Her reply: “I never knew it came the first time.”
Categories