Earth, Wind & Fire, formed in 1969 by band leader Maurice White, is an African American R&B band out of Chicago, Illinois. The band has won ten Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards and has been inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as well as the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. Their music encompasses multiple genres, such as African, Latin American, funk, soul, pop, rock, and jazz music, which is why Rolling Stone described them as the band that “changed the sound of black pop.”

Selling over 90 million albums and making VH1’s list of the “100 Greatest Artists of Rock N’ Roll” in 1998 at number 60, the success of the band is extremely apparent. Out of their seven singles that made the Top Ten on either the United States Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart or the United Kingdom UK Singles Chart, their single “Shining Star” (1975) topped the US Billboard at #1. Having been active as a band for 40 years, they are still playing to this day, with scheduled events for October, 2009.