Searching? Here’s Motown 2026 (so far)
STARS, PAST AND PRESENT, ON THE ROAD AND IN THE NEWS
Given how many decades have passed since Motown’s creative peak, this year is proving quite remarkable for the resilience and energy of so many of its original music-makers.
And perhaps something else is happening. “What I’m starting to see is a lot of people who are from younger generations really starting to discover Motown, or discover jazz or discover new, you know, different styles of music.”
The words are those of Chris Roe, the 52-year-old manager of Martha Reeves, who has co-produced her forthcoming album, Searching, and has long represented the singer. And late last year, a senior executive in vinyl/cassette/CD manufacturing, Neil Gibbons, told a U.K. newspaper, “In the last 12 months, gen Z have actually bought more CDs than millennials, gen X and baby boomers. These purchases are done mainly online and in-store, such as record shops and high street stores, demonstrating that they are actively seeking these formats out.”
Headlining in the park, with pride
Whether or not Searching fulfils its commercial ambitions, there can’t be much doubt that the appetite for classic Motown stars and their music is as robust as ever, and not only among the baby boomers who grew up with them. Concert venues hosting the likes of Reeves, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, the Temptations and Smokey Robinson are filled with the younger people who Roe references. Ross, for one, will see that again when she headlines what’s been described as Britain’s most popular LGBT event, Pride On The Park, in Brighton & Hove in a few weeks’ time.
There continues to be considerable media interest in Motown, too. Reeves has been doing a round of interviews for Searching, with the results evident in Rolling Stone, USA Today, the Guardian, the Detroit Free Press, Uncut and more. It helps when there’s new music to talk about, which Robinson and Ross will have been reminded of upon the release of their most recent albums, What The World Needs Now (2025) and Thank You (2021), respectively.
Given streaming services’ global reach and appeal, the relative decline of physical reissues of Motown catalogue in recent years is no surprise – but the imminent appearance of an expanded edition of a classic Four Tops album is an encouraging counter to that trend. Four Tops Live! comes out on July 24 via Spain’s Elemental Music as a limited-edition 2LP set, including previously-unavailable tracks from the group’s historic turn at Detroit’s Roostertail nightclub in 1966. It will also be on digital streaming services from Motown/Universal Music.
Fans of Elemental’s standard-reissue programme of Motown catalogue titles on vinyl will hope that this move – the European firm’s first venture (with UMG) into expanded editions – pays off enough to encourage it to do more in future. Meanwhile, Ace Records U.K. continued its devotion to classic Motown with a couple of compilations of cover versions of the songs of Wonder and Robinson.
Digitally, Motown’s three most-popular tracks worldwide on Spotify continue to add hundreds of millions of streams to their totals, reported here through early December last year. As of this month, those hits remain Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with 1.9 billion streams (up from 1.8 billion), the Temptations’ “My Girl” at 1.3 billion (1.2 billion) and the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” at 1.2 billion (1.1 billion). It’s a fair bet that many, if not most, of those listeners belong to younger generations.
A BILLION-DOLLAR (ALMOST) BIOPIC
The same is likely true of the millions who have turned out at cinemas across the globe for Michael, the movie starring Jackson’s nephew, Jaafar, in the title role. It is the highest-grossing biopic to date: now close to $1 billion in ticket sales, and still counting. Obviously, the Jackson brothers’ development by Motown is captured in Michael, even if one of their hits there, “Never Can Say Goodbye,” is wrongly slotted into their pre-Motown timeline. Berry Gordy is portrayed by Larenz Tate, who previously played Quincy Jones in the 2004 Ray Charles biopic, Ray.
Jaafar’s father has gained less attractive publicity: Jermaine Jackson is fighting legal action over an alleged sexual assault in 1988. The accuser, Rita Butler Barrett, filed a lawsuit in late 2023, to which Jackson did not respond. (Berry Gordy was also accused of helping to cover up the assault.) After the singer was hit with a $6.5 million default judgement in May, a Los Angeles judge found in his favour on June 30, voiding the default payment and restarting the litigation process. Smokey Robinson has similar legal woes, having been accused of sexual abuse in May 2025 by four of his former housekeepers. He has vehemently denied their claims, and countersued. The case is expected to come to trial next year.
Martha Reeves and manager Chris Roe
On a happier note, there continue to be concert dates at home and abroad undertaken by Robinson (now 86) and Ross (82), while a couple of, uh, younger ex-Motown stars, Wonder (76) and Lionel Richie (77), are on the road in the United States. At least, Richie was until June 24, when he had a dizzy spell onstage during a show in St. Paul, and was taken to hospital. He subsequently cancelled two gigs which immediately followed the Minnesota date.
The highlight of Wonder’s calendar so far in 2026 has been his guest appearance at the June 18 opening of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. He performed “All I Do,” “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours)” and “Higher Ground,” the last of these with various other music stars. Wonder first met Obama in 2004, and supported him in subsequent political campaigns. At the centre’s ceremonies, the 44th U.S. president could be seen mouthing Wonder’s lyrics as the superstar sang.
In conclusion, there’s another development which suggests that “the Sound of Young America” created six decades ago will continue to influence new generations – specifically, in this case, musicians. Fender Guitars has just announced the introduction of the James Jamerson 1962 Precision Bass, “an era-accurate instrument” built to match the original as closely as possible, according to the company. It features a custom Jamerson “split single-coil pickup that’s tuned for lush low end with enough definition that fills and runs stay audible in a mix.”
That Jamerson’s original fills and runs were audible in the mix of some of the finest recordings in popular music history is to understate his influence. With luck, the young musicians of today and tomorrow will carry his legacy – and that of Hitsville U.S.A. – far into the future.
Now, here’s more detail: a chronological list of Motown-related events during this 2026 calendar year so far, including some which are scheduled but not yet reality. As always, it’s meant to be representative, rather than exhaustive.
January 6: Stevie Wonder attends the latest Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on its opening day in Las Vegas. Asked there about the risks and rewards of Artificial Intelligence, he says, “I will not let my music be programmed. I’m not going to use it to do me and do the music I’ve done.” Wonder adds, “Let’s see how you make things better for people in their lives — not to emulate life, but to make life better for the living.”
January 19: This year’s first Smokey Robinson show on his dedicated SiriusXM channel, Smokey’s Soul Town, is aired, entitled It Takes Two: Motown’s Greatest Duets. It’s followed through the first-half by such episodes as The Berry Gordy Songbook and Motown Sings 1650 Broadway.
At the boxoffice, a biopic like no other
January 20: The Motown Museum in Detroit closes for the completion of its multi-million-dollar expansion project. Guided tours are suspended until 2027, but exhibits and events at the nearby Esther Gordy Edwards Centre on West Grand will continue.
January 31: The annual pre-Grammy party hosted by Clive Davis takes place at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, with Berry Gordy, Stevie Wonder and Gladys Knight among the guests.
February 21: Smokey Robinson plays the Aqua Caliente Casino Resort & Spa in Rancho Mirage, California.
March 1: In Long Beach, California, Stevie Wonder attends the opening of the fourth location of the late Nipsey Hussle’s Marathon Burger chain. Snoop Dogg is also among those present.
March 13: Suzanne de Passe is honoured at the MPowered Maverick Celebration at the Sofitel Beverly Hills. “Never, never, never ask people to get on their feet,” she tells the audience about a lesson learned from Berry Gordy. “If they mean it, they will.”
April 2: Veteran session drummer James Gadson dies at the age of 86. In Los Angeles, he played on such Motown hits as “Dancing Machine,” “Love Hangover,” “Don’t Leave Me This Way,” “I Want You” and many others.
April 14: Ace Records releases Shop Around: The Smokey Robinson Songbook, with tracks by Blondie, Otis Redding, Ella Fitzgerald, Kiki Dee, Little Richard and more. It follows the March 27 release of a similar compilation, Black America Sings Stevie Wonder.
April 17: The Motown Museum opens its latest exhibit, “Psychedelic Soul: A Journey Through Rhythm and Time,” at the Esther Gordy Edwards Centre for Excellence, two blocks west of the museum’s primary site on West Grand Boulevard. It will run through September 27.
April 19: The Detroit Free Press reports the departure of Dr. Kenya Messer as CEO of the Motown Museum. “Dr. Messer has moved on to other opportunities,” museum chairwoman Robin Terry tells the newspaper’s Brian McCollum. Messer was appointed less than a year ago.
April 20: The movie Michael, starring Jaafar Jackson, has its world premiere in Hollywood, California, with Smokey Robinson and wife Frances Gladney among the guests. Michael goes into wide release from April 24.
Stevie celebrates the new Obama centre
May 2: Freda Payne and sister Scherrie share stories of their careers with chart expert and music author Fred Bronson, for one of his regular “Fred Talks” at Vitello’s in Studio City, California.
May 19: Shaping Sounds is published, the memoir of veteran music man Bob Margouleff, who (with Malcolm Cecil) produced four of Stevie Wonder’s most celebrated albums of the 1970s. The book originates from Jawbone Press.
May 30: Ronald LaPread of the Commodores dies in Auckland, New Zealand, at age 75. He lived there for almost 40 years.
June 3: Thelma Houston releases a new single, “Love Is The Power,” which she co-authored with Bunny Hull, the track’s producer. Hull has written for numerous stars, including Patti LaBelle, Anita Baker and Diana Ross. She and Houston have worked together in the past.
June 8: Students from various U.S. universities begin taking part in a ten-week “New Legends” internship programme sponsored by Motown Records. The initiative provides those from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) with hands-on experience, professional development and direct access to entertainment industry executives at the company.
June 11: Lionel Richie files four trademark applications in the U.S. for the sound of his voice in “Easy,” “Hello,” “Say You, Say Me” and “All Night Long (All Night).” Concern is growing in the music industry, reports Billboard, over voice cloning, unauthorised AI training and other threats.
June 15: Diana Ross is one of four prominent women featured in a new TV and online advertising campaign (“Never Uniform, Always You”) for U.S. fashion retailer TJ Maxx.
June 15: Thelma Houston guests on Smokey Robinson’s SiriusXM channel, talking about her career, and singing “The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game” (with Robinson) and “My Guy.”
June 18: Stevie Wonder performs at the opening ceremony of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, with John Legend, Common, Jennifer Hudson and Bruce Springsteen joining him on “Higher Ground.”
Louvain Demps: stepping into the limelight
June 22: Berry Gordy issues a statement about Clive Davis, “a true music giant and a dear friend,” following his death on this day. The funeral takes place one week later in New York; Stevie Wonder is among those in attendance.
June 24: Lionel Richie cuts short the opening night show of his Sing A Song All Night Long tour with Earth, Wind & Fire after experiencing a dizzy spell onstage. His scheduled June 26 appearance in Chicago is cancelled.
June 26: “To Know You Is To Love You” is the first single from Martha Reeves’ forthcoming album, Searching, on independent Fun Day Records. The song was originally recorded by Syreeta Wright, and co-written by her with Stevie Wonder. The album is due on August 14.
June 26: Veteran arranger Harold Wheeler dies at the age of 82. He worked on the Temptations’ musical, Ain’t Too Proud; the Jacksons’ TV mini-series, An American Dream; and Smokey Robinson’s 2006 album, Timeless Love, among other credits.
June 29: During a U.K. press interview, the Temptations’ Otis Williams is asked whether the group will continue after him. Williams,84, tells Shaun Curran of iNews, “Well, that’s a good question. Because I said, ‘Otis, if you should leave, retire, whatever, it ain’t gonna be the same Temptations then. Because I’m the last one that’s holding it.”
July 4: The Temptations and the Four Tops are due to play the Love Supreme Jazz Festival in the U.K. at Glynde Park, near Brighton, one of a number of U.K. concert dates by the groups this month.
July 17: Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On is set for re-release as a high-definition vinyl LP in the Definitive Sound Series (DDS) of Universal Music’s Capitol/Interscope labels. It’s cut from the original analogue Motown master tapes, and is a limited edition of 3,000 pressings.
July 24: Smokey Robinson and Gladys Knight will perform together at the Hollywood Bowl in a show branded as “Just The Two Of Us.”
July 24: Elemental Music is due to release an expanded edition of Four Tops Live! in a 2LP vinyl format, with original and new liner notes by Scott Regen, MC at the group’s original Roostertail shows in August and September 1966, and by Motown’s longtime custodian at Universal Music, Harry Weinger.
August 2: Diana Ross is set to headline Pride On The Park at England’s Brighton & Hove. This follows shows in the Czech Republic (her first-ever performance there) and Belgium; the three dates are said to be the star’s only international concerts this year.
Book notes: two new Motown-related titles are due in the second half of the year. The first is The Untold Story of Wanda Rogers, written by Meta Ventress, daughter of the late Marvelette. The second is One Step Away, the story of the Andantes, authored by the group’s Louvain Demps with Paul Milliken. The latter is best-known in Motown circles for The Diana Ross Project website, but he is also a professional journalist, based in Atlanta. The book will be published by HarperCollins in December.