KEY POINTS:
To pilfer a phrase from Prince: His name is Stevie, and he is funky. Not to mention soulful. And when it comes time for him to give Auckland his 1984 hit I Just Called To Say I Love You, Stevie Wonder is a true romantic and more than a little cheesy too.
Lets face it, Wonder has recorded some pap in his 45-year-plus career (remember the wimpy Ebony and Ivory) and there have been fruity moments too, like 1979's Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants.
But his classic 1970s albums - including Talking Book, Innervisions and Songs In the Key Of Life - have influenced soul, R&B, hip-hop and pop since ... and are what make him a music legend.
So forget about having a talk with God, because the sold-out crowd is worshipping only one deity tonight, the blind, head-bobbing bloke up there on keyboards.
Tonight, Wonder and his big, smiling 11-piece band start with a Miles Davis cover. And what a version of A Kind Of Blue it is.
The first time the crowd really erupts is for Higher Ground, which gives way to an extended introduction of the band over one of those loopy instrumental backdrops.
Then it's into Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing, with a frenzied Latino outro.
It's a pity many of the songs from that classic period are bundled into a medley - there's Sir Duke, Isn't She Lovely, and Sunshine Of My Life all in one parcel.
What makes the show more special is that it's the last on his A Wonder Spring Night world tour before he hightails it back to the US to perform for Barack Obama.
He last visited Auckland in 1987, when his show at Mt Smart Stadium was rained out and he ended up playing an intimate gig in a nightclub in Fort St.
Before the grand finale of Superstition, in which the band and Wonder let lose with a classic version of a classic, and an extended version of As, the beautiful, loved up song from Songs In the Key Of Life, he's presented with a six-times-platinum award and donates to the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind. What a dude.
Few bands and recording artists deserve the "see before you die" accolade but Stevie Wonder is one who does.
Now we can tick him off the list. Signed, sealed, delivered.
