A few weeks ago, one of Madina Diallo’s close friends asked her if she wanted to go see Stevie Wonder perform at CFG Bank Arena.

“Oh, I didn’t know he was coming to Baltimore” said Diallo, a senior at Morgan State University. She was going to think about it.

It’s funny how life turns out, she said. Earlier this week, she took the stage with about 20 others singers from the Morgan State University Choir as backing vocals for Wonder.

The choir performed three songs with the legendary musician on Tuesday night during his stop in Baltimore as part of his “Sing Your Song! As We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart” tour. The performance got national attention after Barack and Michelle Obama appeared with Wonder on stage. For the group of Morgan choir singers, though, the whole plan came together in just days.

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Wonder’s music director reached out to Dr. Eric Conway, the chair of the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Morgan, on Oct. 9, asking if Conway would be interested in having his choir join the singer in his show.

It was a no-brainer, Conway said. The artist isn’t that much older than him, he said, but Conway credits Wonder for his own sight-reading. Conway was around 10 or 11 when he bought a songbook of one of Wonder’s albums. A pianist, Conway said he was determined to learn all of “Songs in the Key of Life.”

Conway had until the weekend to choose a small group from his 100-singer choir to perform in the show. On Sunday, he told Diallo, the alto section leader, that she was one of the people he picked.

Diallo immediately texted her closest friends and called her mom. They all asked her when, thinking the opportunity was in the next few months, Diallo said.

“This Tuesday,” she told them.

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The group rehearsed Monday without Wonder. They had already performed one of his suggested songs earlier this year.

Before the concert Tuesday night, the Obamas surprised the choir group backstage. The singers, many whom told Conway later on that Wonder was one of their favorite artists, were mesmerized by the musician, he said.

The Morgan choir group rehearsed for the performance on Monday, with the concert the following night. (Courtesy of Morgan State University)

Nothing felt real until they saw Wonder doing his vocal warmup, Diallo said. Some of her professors and friends, people she didn’t even know would be going to be at the concert, sent photos of the her on stage performing with Wonder.

To be in the presence of such an artist, with a career as long as he has had, was a gift, said both Diallo and Conway.

Conway also partially credits his 35-year-long marriage to Wonder. He met his wife when they were students at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University.

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In their early dating, Conway asked his wife to go to a Stevie Wonder concert with him.

“I like to think that may have sealed the deal,” he said.