{"id":321493,"date":"2024-05-15T06:45:26","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T06:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/?p=321493"},"modified":"2024-05-15T07:14:36","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T07:14:36","slug":"stevie-on-the-wonder-of-becoming-a-ghanaian-citizen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/news\/stevie-on-the-wonder-of-becoming-a-ghanaian-citizen\/2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Stevie on the Wonder of becoming a Ghanaian citizen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Legendary singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder<\/a> is officially Ghanaian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Monday – the US musical icon’s 74th birthday – he was granted citizenship of Ghana by the nation’s president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “This is it, congratulations!” Nana Akufo-Addo told a beaming Wonder, handing the Grammy winner a certificate at a ceremony in the presidential palace where he was also presented with a birthday cake with a Ghanaian flag iced on top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wonder told the BBC that gaining Ghanaian nationality on his birthday was an “amazing thing”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The superstar was born and bred in the US state of Michigan but has long had an affinity for Ghana – a West African nation thousands of miles from home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1975, with a string of hit albums behind him, Wonder openly expressed a desire to quit music and move to Ghana. He believed his ancestral lineage could be traced there, reports say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wonder stuck with singing and stayed stateside, but after headlining a Ghanaian music festival in the 1990s, he again expressed a desire to set up home there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n