Music singer Stevie Wonder on Tuesday won the Israeli Wolf Award, at the head of a group of speakers in the acclaimed arts and sciences.
Wonder was recognized for “the commendable contribution he has made to music and society enriching the lives of entire generations of music lovers,” according to a statement from President Reuven Rivlin’s office.
Steve Wonder
(Photo: gettyimages)
The Wolf Foundation is a state-owned organization that awards the award for excellence in advancing science and the arts. About three dozen Wolf Laureates have gone on to win Nobel prizes.
Wonder, who has won more than two dozen Grammy Awards, has made a series of beats over a long career that began when he was a teenager playing as Little Stevie Wonder. His classic songs include “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” “Superstition,” “I Just Called to Say I Love You” and “Living for the City.”
Wonder shares the music award with Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth.
“Each of them can take us out of the depths and lift our souls in a way we don’t even fully understand,” said Rivlin, who announced the awards.
Austrian Composer Olga Neuwirth
(Photo: Courtesy)
Giorgio Parisi received the award for physics; Joan Steitz, Lynne Maquat and Adrian Krainer won the medicine award; and Leslie Leiserowitz and Meir Lahav won for chemistry.
Rivlin said the laureates were chosen “for what he accomplished on behalf of humanity.” He described the winners of the treatment as “advanced researchers of RNA, the way the coronavirus vaccines are based.”
The awards are usually presented later in the year at a ceremony in Knesset, Israel’s parliament. But because of the pandemic, the awards will be presented at the speakers ’residence.