Stevie Wonder To Receive Icon Award at 2012 Billboard Music Awards
Stevie Wonder will be honored with the 2012 Billboard Icon Award at the "2012 Billboard Music Awards on May 20, ABC announced today.
Wonder will also be presented with an all-star tribute at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
"While Stevie Wonder's songs are unequivocally classic and his influence timeless, equally laudable are his humanitarian efforts, philanthropic leadership and generosity of spirit," ABC said in a statement.
The Awards will be hosted by Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell. Lisa Marie Presley, Wiz Khalifa, Luke Bryan, Robin Thicke, Brandy, Monica and Miley Cyrus have been announced as presenters.
They join previously announced presenters Taio Cruz, Gavin DeGraw, Gladys Knight, Julianne Hough, Natasha Bedingfield and Jeremy Sisto, along with musical acts Kelly Clarkson, Linkin Park, Nelly Furtado, Usher, Carrie Underwood, Justin Bieber, LMFAO and The Wanted.
Stevie Wonder is one of the most celebrated and prominent figures in popular music who, at the age of 13, was the youngest recording artist to achieve a No. 1 single with "Fingertips, Part 2," and subsequently was also the first to simultaneously reach No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100, R&B Singles and Album Charts.
To date he has amassed 49 Top 40 singles, 32 No. 1 singles, and worldwide sales of over 100 million units. He has won 25 Grammy Awards, the prestigious Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, a Golden Globe and an Academy Award.
In 1983 Wonder spearheaded the realization of "Martin Luther King Day" as a national holiday. His participation in the 1985 "We Are the World" fundraiser for hunger in Africa was a music industry milestone, while his involvement to put an end to apartheid in South Africa is legendary.
In 1999 he became the youngest recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors. He is also a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Apollo Theatre Hall of Fame.
The Awards' broadcast will be on May 20 at 11 p.m. EST.
