Music Friday: Stevie Wonder Sings About Girl With 'Diamonds in Her Shoes'

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you awesome songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, R&B legend Stevie Wonder teams up with pop princess Ariana Grande in the high-energy, gospel-tinged showstopper, "Faith," from the soundtrack of the 2016 animated family flick, Sing.

In the first line of the song, Wonder describes a young woman with unusual footwear and a spring in her step: "See the girl with the diamonds in her shoes? Yeah / She walks around like she's got nothin' to lose / Yes she's a go-getter, she's everybody's type / She's a queen of the city but she don't believe the hype."

The meaning behind gem-embellished footwear has been hotly debated since Paul Simon first performed “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” on Saturday Night Live in 1986. In reviewing Simon's song about the unlikely romance between a poor boy and a rich girl in New York City, critics wondered if the diamond/shoe reference symbolized conspicuous consumption or something more positive and upbeat?

One contributor to songmeanings.com compared wearing diamonds on the soles of one’s shoes to looking at the world through rose-colored glasses.

“Everywhere you go, your interaction is done through the diamonds on your shoes,” he wrote, “and diamonds as a symbol of wealth, happiness and love mean you are interacting with your world through a constant ‘happy’ filter, you have a skip to your step, you are happy.”

We believe this is exactly what Wonder and his co-writers are conveying in "Faith," which can be heard during the opening credits of Sing, which featured an all-star voice cast (Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane and Scarlett Johansson) and grossed $634 million worldwide. It even spawned a sequel, Sing 2, in 2021.

Grande was only 23 years old when she was invited to join Wonder (then 66) in a sound booth to record "Faith" in 2016. The spellbound singer recounted the experience during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

"Not only did I get to sing with him, but we were in the same booth," Grande said. "So it was like me and Stevie Wonder, arm in arm, holding hands in the booth, singing together, laughing, having a good time. I was like, 'Whoa.'

"Every time I got comfortable with the fact that I was in a booth arm-in-arm with Stevie Wonder, then he would hit a Stevie run and I'd be like 'Oh [bleep]' Stevie Wonder. It was surreal."

"Faith" charted in seven countries and was nominated for Best Original Song at the 74th Golden Globe Awards.

Please check out the video of Wonder and Grande performing "Faith." We also have the lyrics, below, if you'd like to sing along…

"Faith"
Written by Ryan Tedder, Stevie Wonder and Francis Farewell Starlite. Performed by Stevie Wonder, featuring Ariana Grande.

[Stevie Wonder:]
See the girl with the diamonds in her shoes? Yeah
She walks around like she's got nothin' to lose
Yes she's a go-getter, she's everybody's type
She's a queen of the city but she don't believe the hype
She's got her own elevation, holy motivation
'Til I wrote some letters on big bold signs

[Together:]
I got faith in you baby, I got faith in you now
And you've been such a, such a good friend of me
Know that I gotta love you somehow
I met you, hallelujah, I got faith

[Ariana Grande]
See the boy with the Stevie Wonder swag?
Ain't gotta clue all the magic that he has
He's a go-getter, he's everybody's type
I'ma make it my mission, make him feel alright
He's a twelve on a ten point, rockin' out to his joint
Just say the word 'cause I can sing all night

[Together:]
I got faith in you baby, I got faith in you now
And you've been such a, such a good friend of me
Know that I love you somehow (love you somehow)
I met you, hallelujah, I got faith

[Wonder:]
Faith, yeah
Yes I do, mmm
I get it runnin' and my mind goes crazy
I think about you mornin', noon, night and day

[Together:]
I get it runnin' and my mind goes crazy
I think about you mornin', noon, night and day
I get it runnin' and my mind goes crazy
I think about you mornin', noon, night and day
I got faith in you honey, I got faith in you girl
I met you, hallelujah

I got faith in you baby, I got faith in you now
And you've been such a, such a good friend of me
Know that I love you somehow (love you somehow)
I met you, hallelujah, I got faith
(Faith, faith, baby)

I got faith in you baby, I got faith in you now
And you've been such a, such a good friend of me
Know that I gotta love you somehow (love you somehow)
I met you, hallelujah, I met you, hallelujah
I met you, hallelujah, I got faith

Faith

Credit: Screen capture via Youtube.com / Stevie Wonder.

Marriage Rates in US Return to Pre-Pandemic Levels, Reports the CDC

After enduring a COVID-related slump, marriage rates in the US are finally back to pre-pandemic levels, according to stats released by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

Exactly 2.06 million couples took their vows in 2022, the first time the number has surpassed 2 million since 2019. The rate of 6.2 marriages per 1,000 population was the highest since 2018, when it was 6.5.

The CDC has yet to release its numbers for 2023, but all signs point to a continuing upward trend.

The number of marriages in 2020 (at the height of COVID) was the lowest recorded in the US since 1963, as many couples had to delay weddings during the pandemic.

The beginning of a recovery was seen in 2021 as COVID-related restrictions eased up. The number of marriages increased from 1.67 million in 2020 to 1.98 million in 2021, and the rate increased from 5.1 marriages per 1,000 to 6.0.

Across the nation, 36 states and the District of Columbia reported marriage rates in 2022 that either matched or exceeded the levels seen in 2019.

The six states with the highest marriage rates in 2022 were the following:
-Nevada (25.9)
-Hawaii (14.4)
-Montana (9.9)
-Utah (9.9)
-Arkansas (7.9)
-Vermont (7.8)

The unusually high rate for Nevada is attributed to Las Vegas being the "wedding capital of the world." The CDC's data reflects the location where the marriage occurred and not necessarily the place of the couple's residence.

The six states with lowest marriage rates in 2022 are shown here:
-Louisiana (3.7)
-New Mexico (4.2)
-Illinois (4.9)
-Maryland (5.0)
-Delaware (5.1)
-New Jersey (5.1)

Historically speaking, marriage rates in the US have progressively declined since the early 1980s. The 6.2 rate in 2022 stands in sharp contrast to the all-time high of 16.4 in 1946, when soldiers returned home after serving in WWII.

The CDC also reported that the number and rate of divorces in 2022 (673,989 and 2.4 per 1,000 population) ticked down slightly from 2.5 in 2021, continuing a longstanding downward trend. In 2010, the divorce rate was 3.6 per 1,000.

Credit: Image by BigStockPhoto.com.

Gold by the Numbers: These Fun Facts Will Have You Scratching Your Head

The glint of gold caught the eye of early man more than 5,000 years ago and has been coveted by ancient and modern civilizations ever since. We can all agree that gold is rare, valuable and astonishingly beautiful, but here are some little-known, fun facts about the precious metal — as provided by the World Gold Council — to share around the water cooler.

Gold by the Numbers:

49 - The portion of all mined gold that is made into jewelry. This industry is the single largest consumer of the precious metal.

22 – All of the gold ever mined would fit into a cube measuring 22 meters.

187,200 – All the gold ever mined would tip the scales at 187,200 tons.

9 – One ounce of pure gold can be hammered into a single translucent sheet 0.000018 cm thick and 9 meters square.

11.2 million – If all the existing gold in the world was pulled into a 5-micron-thick wire, it could wrap around the Earth 11.2 million times.

1064 – Gold melts at 1,064 degrees Celsius (1,943 degrees Fahrenheit).

31.103 – There are just over 31 grams in a troy ounce of gold.

1/5 – It is rarer to find a one ounce nugget of gold than a 5-carat diamond.

1849 – The year of the California Gold Rush, when 40,000 miners headed west to seek their fortunes. They were called 49ers and the vast majority never got rich.

1885 – While digging up stones to build a house, Australian miner George Harrison found gold ore near Johannesburg in 1885, sparking the South African gold rush.

2,316 – “Welcome Stranger,” the largest gold nugget ever found, weighed an astonishing 2,316 troy ounces (144.75 pounds). It was unearthed at Moliagul, Australia, in February of 1869.

200 – This how many gold coins Julius Caesar presented to each of his soldiers for defeating Gaul in 52 BCE.

400 – The “London Good Delivery” is an investment-grade gold bullion bar containing 400 troy ounces of gold.

530,000 – The number of gold bars held by the US Federal Reserve. The bars weigh a total of 6,700 tons.

750 – Gold is often alloyed with other metals to change its color and strength. Eighteen-karat gold is composed of 750 parts of pure gold per 1,000.

Credits: Image by Stevebidmead, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.