Montreux Jazz Festival 2014: Stevie Wonder to play at Stravinsky Auditorium on July 16

Stevie Wonder, Pharrell Williams and Damon Albarn will headline the 48th Montreux Jazz Festival later this year.

The full line-up for the festival, which runs from July 4-19, includes Van Morrison, Massive Attack, hip-hop duo Outkast and Jamie Cullum.

Stevie Wonder’s appearance fulfils a long-held wish of the festival’s late founder Claude Nobs, who died in 2013.

“We tried to get Stevie many times,” said festival director Mathieu Jaton.

Stevie Wonder will play at the Swiss resort’s Stravinsky Auditorium on July 16, with seats priced at 450 Swiss francs ($470).

Paharrell Williams, who stole the show at this year’s Oscars with his performance of Despicable Me 2’s Happy, will perform at the festival on July 7.

“He is the artist we had to get this year,” Mathieu Jaton told Reuters.

“You hear Pharrell Williams everywhere on the radio and television. He has produced incredible pieces,” he added, alluding to Pharrell Williams’ string of hit performances on tracks like Daft Punk’s Get Lucky and Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines.

Robin Thicke will also perform at the event, as will Chris Rea – who returns to the Montreux stage for the first time in 14 years.

Announcing the line-up, Mathieu Jaton spoke about the on-going work to digitize the 6,000 hours of recorded music from Montreux concerts across the years.

Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland was founded in 1967 and has hosted stars including Miles Davis, Ray Charles, David Bowie and Prince.

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