Stevie Wonder, the R&B hitmaker behind “Superstition” and “I Just Called to Say I Love You,” among others, said that he was five years old when he first heard the voice of a then-emerging young civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Decades later, Wonder’s production company Eyes ‘n’ Sound has been working with TIME Studios on a feature documentary that chronicles the musician’s crucial role in the fight to establish Martin Luther King Jr. Day as an American national holiday.
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“I felt the need for us to celebrate a man who spent his life fighting, fighting for those rights, the rights for equality, the rights for civil rights, the rights for justice, the rights for the things that we say that this nation stands for,” Wonder said Monday at a TIME Impact Dinner commemorating the holiday. Wonder added that people must understand the level of “commitment and responsibility” needed to continue to champion those rights.
The film, which attendees on Monday got an exclusive sneak peek of the trailer for and which is set for release later this year, centers on Wonder’s iconic “Happy Birthday” song that was released on his 1980 album Hotter Than July.
The documentary feature is directed by Academy Award-nominated director Traci Curry, who co-directed Attica (2021) and the National Geographic documentary series Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time (2025). Curry said Monday that the film is an “invitation for the audience to reconsider some very familiar aspects of our culture” as it dives deep into the creation and the history of the birthday song.
Wonder’s song galvanized a movement honoring King’s legacy and—with the help of King Jr.’s widow, Coretta Scott King, and the Congressional Black Caucus—a bill to create the holiday landed on the U.S. House floor in 1983, which former President Ronald Reagan signed into law that November.
Curry said that the documentary could also offer a blueprint for mass movements, recognizing the current political climate in the U.S. “We find ourselves in a political moment in this country where the rights that Dr. King and the members of the civil rights movement fought so hard for are in peril, as is our very democracy,” Curry says. “And I think we are in a moment where people are looking for a blueprint of what to do.”
When asked about what artists can do to lead change, Wonder referenced the lyrics to another of his songs, “Superstition,” in which he sings: “When you believe in things you don’t understand, then you suffer / Superstition ain’t the way.”
“Do your research,” he explained. “Discover the truth. Truth is the light, and we, as people of this nation and all over the world, must remember that we hold the power, and we must use that power, the gift that we have, the opportunity that we have. Use that power to educate, motivate, and inspire the young people of today.”
“I would hope that artists that get it will get it and do something about it,” he concluded. “I can’t tell you what to do, but you better do the right thing.”
TIME Impact Dinner: Advancing the Dream — From Healing to Action was presented by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
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