10 Most Inspirational and Famous Blind People

The blind has eyes and they also cry. Talent of any kind lies in the mind, creativity on the other hand derives purely from the robust and deepest depths of one’s constantly active imagination which in general is a huge door opener of many of things unimaginable. Everything of a genius that we see, experience or have within the possession of our grasp have all started from a brilliant idea at which masterminded and crafted, tired and tested by some of the most extraordinary minds in human history.

Before discussing about famous blind people, here are some examples of geniuses who revolutionized things of the world that are still under development from their initial concept would be in the names that are cast in histories stone such as: Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Edison and the rest of the greats that we have learnt about, some time in our lives. There is no limit to how creative somebody can be or how far the average human’s mind is supposed to wonder.

Just like these extraordinary people mentioned above, there are also people who have made a high place for themselves on a world scale and are famously known for a certain remarkable character or soul within them that preserved and endued an immeasurable much of what even normal and abled people would have not been able to cope with.

Despite each one being blind, they have not let their inability of sight to stop them from being who they were ultimately born to be and to do what they were gifted to do. Below we look at the 10 best famous blind people in ranking of their popularity, success, achievements and other things which they have accomplished or that makes them remarkable that’s unmatched to even some normal and abled people of the world.

10. Doc Watson

A man that’s been around since the 1920’s can be traditionally recognized and acknowledged by many through the years and can certainly not be forgotten by the folks and locals as well as the rest of the people around the world that his influenced.

Also Watson is among the most famous blind people. Being a traditional guitarist and singer, which his parents have naturally influenced onto him which he eventually passed onto his children too.

Despite Doc being blind and darkness was all he could remember, Doc has created somewhat of a lively, colorful richness throughout his life via the music which was a passage way to live his life just as every other normal human being.

Sadly being gifted to live till the golden and super lucky age of 89, he has fell to his demise at which he passed away in his home ,yet the legend in Mr. Watson’s name continues to live on by other influenced and aspiring artists in his genre and who reign in his evergreen legacy of traditional folk music.

9. Dianne Schuur

For all that Jazz she’s been highly acclaimed and made famous for being somewhat of a female version of a ‘Jazzy Funkster’ Jazz being her trademark genre, many around the world who don’t appreciate meaningful music where real artists sing with their real un-computerized voices and play real musical instruments , this is un-doubtfully raw talent!

But most where most would discriminate and judge jazz as being ‘boring’ even without listening to it but purely because there’s this norm created by youngsters that where songs have ‘words’ in it and not groovy beat ,then it’s considered as “ancient music”.

Dianne Schuur on the other hand, despite being ranked among the famous blind people, has this fiery passion towards adding a little essence of funk to Jazz music and has been kicking it all around the world, while creating a name for herself in the process and she most definitely won in that regard and its through her beautifully angel voice that she sings and communicates to the world. Everything is ‘seen’ through her music which is remarkable.

Oh and she can play the piano too which makes it even more interesting to say that even some people who do have the gift of eyes that can actually see, won’t know a clue of what to do and how to play one. She has more radiance, beauty and hope of life than some ‘normal’ people who have everything.

8. David Paterson

Being the only governor of New York to be partially blind is definitely a bold statement that says everything extraordinary in itself. Paterson is one of the top famous blind people who is truly revered.

This is also something that proves that New York City hasn’t been that judgy and discriminating after all as they have given a fair chance to David Paterson to be partially blind and to have been African American which immediately should have told you about his struggle in living in America, to be elected and to have taken a fair and well deserved seat in being Governor of New York.

This also speaks a statement of brilliance in his character and mindset as well as political views and action towards changing it for the better. It’s also not very often that we see a partially blind person that also pursed a passion for basketball, and yes you bet that Lt. Gov. Paterson with the former governor as one of his opponents.

Looks like their competition went further than just who nets the basket in this case. If this doesn’t motivate people to becoming successful and to never give up on their dreams and who they were destined to be, despite whatever physical challenges they have to face, then I don’t know what else would.

7. Dana Elcar

If you’ve grown up in the 1980’s, you would have loved TV Series. After all, color television and MTV was great wasn’t it? The only form of entertaining thing around the household besides sex. During the 80’s rollercoaster decade of magic, featured MacGyver, who it terms of the best TV series Actors, has played is role as a highly educated scientist that uses science to get out of somewhat life threatening situations.

Speaking of MacGyver, Dana Elcar on the other hand has been his co-star throughout the series and the way in which he has played his role is exceptional. He was able to exhibit so much of aura and charismatic traits during playing his role as Peter Thornton and so brilliantly did it without blatantly making it known of its blindness on screen.

Although viewers may have picked up slightly ,it would have taken a very attentive to detail type of scrutinize to pick it up ,nevertheless his one of the most famous blind people that we loved back in the 80s and still remembered today.

Dana Elcar is also famous for acting in several movies in the reign of his acting career, more in the 80’s. His marvelous appearance and long-time role in MacGyver has certainly made him one of the most famous blind people.

6. Jose Feliciano

Jose Feliciano is a man that seemed to have let off steaming Latino Heat in his charming demeanor and striking appearance throughout his music career. It would have been the greatest gift to him to have seen his live audience cheer to the magical sound of his music.

Revival singer of Faliz Navidad, being a hit song especially around Christmas surely does bring about the Christmas spirit all year round, whether were listening to it on our headphones, the car or indulging in the traditional Christmas turkey at the family dinner table while playing this on our home stereos. Surely a catchy tune and could make even the most stern person want to sing along.

The world couldn’t forget the all-time classic also sung by Jose, which remains an evergreen track till this day with it being a contemporary melodic symphony – “Aint no sunshine”. The song sung by Jose is rather ironical since Jo is blind and the lyrics of it reads as: “Aint no sunshine when she’s gone”. It must really be painful to have lived in darkness for so long.

5. Jeff Healey

Norman Jeffrey Healey or simply “Jeff as his been known to thousands of fans globally and also as a Canadian icon since the 80s and 90’s as well as the yester years ,its rather hard to forget the blind man that sold millions of albums across the world. His eccentric and captivating voice and ability to perform and outstanding and immediately attention magnet type of guitar riff on stage. There is a common factor that some of the most famous blind people are musicians.

This proves that everybody, regardless of their in-abilities that make them different from people who have the gift of sight and hearing, has a talent within them that most certainly needs to be discovered and that one can still make a success of their lives with a drive and motivation and to never let anything no matter how negative it may be of an impact to one’s life, to never let that stop you from achieving what you desire and aspire to do or to become.

Jeff, aren’t like the rest, has a trademark style which makes him extremely unique from other guitarists. The first being is that he is a blind guitarist and what is more remarkable is the fact that he could place the guitar on his lap and strum each string perfectly which isn’t very easy to do. Jeff also recorded a song that featured on the late Patrick Swayze’s, The Road House.

4. Casey Harris

In-case you didn’t know, Casey Harris is a rockstar and ranked among the most famous blind people ever. Hell yeah! Rock Band: X– Ambassadors. Owes a great deal of their success to Mr. Harris above the rest of the contributing singers and instrumentalists of the band. Being a pianist isn’t easy whether you have eyes or not, let alone being blind.

This speaks of a natural born talent that has been discovered and mastered over time by Casey since as far as he can remember, influenced by the greats and now a man of his own with no guidance or reliance of anybody. The Indie Rock band, X- Ambassadors has been a more recent establishment in the Rock Genre of the music industry, and Mr. Harry has been taking Piano lessons since childhood which made him be in total control of his adult life thereafter.

Common people would think, “Piece of cake… Any blind man can play a piano as it’s a finger based instrument”. The piano that Harris plays however isn’t your average funeral song fat lady piano. The odds of Rock stars having a piano as one of their primary instruments are rather odd, which is why Casey plays a synthesizer MEDI loaded keyboard.

Synthesizer keyboards can be regarded as the heart of where all the funky music beats pump from and it takes more than the average pianist to be blind and to play a sophisticated keyboard such as the : Nord Stage 2.

3. Ray Charles

If a youngster had to see a picture of Ray Charles, he’d probably idolize him or report back about him to somebody as “The old man with shades on”. Blind men are known for using dark shades which is somewhat ironical and creates a bit of humor to those that won’t understand the reason behind why a blind man would prominently use dark glasses. Funny isn’t it? Well not quite so.

The reason behind people using dark shades has nothing to do with style purposes, although Ray Charles does have stylish dark shades, the main reason in most cases would be to prevent insensitivity in the eyes from the light that normal sighted eyes can withstand easily.

Ray Charles is one of the most famous blind people in the planet and has mastered being a singer, pianist and song writer as well as carving his name in his musical career as the grand-daddy of blind musicians and particularly for being able to blend Jazz, Gospel, Country and Pop into his songs.

A happy old man with a smile always despite the constant darkness he ‘sees’. Unfortunately Sir Charles is late and has passed away June 10, 2004 yet still an inspiration to several blind persons with the potential of musical talent to follow in his footsteps.

2. Andrea Bocelli

Ever since the late 17th century, the world has seen and heard the magical symphony sounds and compositions of Beethoven and all this within the birth of Italian home grounds and through recorded music of gold and treasure sounds, distributed throughout the world to hear.

There is a certain mastery that’s been passed from generation to generation and has been made world class by tenors and classical musicians such as the Late King of Italian Opera: Luciano Pavarotti and more towards the late 19th Century passed on a legacy to Andrea Bocelli.

Andrea has the voice of a man that you’d want to listen to very carefully especially at a live show and even if you’re not exactly a classical music fan, this is where the beauty of the sound which Classical music of sentimental depth and meaning would have on the ears of almost any person who appreciates music.

Being blind never stopped Andrea who has revived most of Luciano Pavarotti’s music but with Broccoli Vocal style. The art we can respect dearly when it comes to Andrea Bocelli is his ability to master each sound, each hymn, each vocal note or high pitch verse is sung with voice precision and a level of professionalism which creates a sense of exclusivity to the person which is remarkable in all sense.

Andrea Bocelli can be considered as one of the greats in the same line as Pavarotti, Giuseppe Verdi. Most definitely one of the most famous blind people that the world admires deeply and loves.

1. Stevie Wonder

Most Inspirational and Famous Blind People

Yes! You guessed it. The most famous blind man who ranks Number 1 on the list is here not for no reason. See as the decades pass, music fades too, Singers who were popular in the 50s will not be such a hit in the modern era, not with youngsters and not with elders either as their memories seem to weaken with their age too.

Although it’s a stone cold and carved in the sky fact that music regardless of what decade or century it was made, lives on timelessly as it’s always a discovery by the music fanatics that would be found and revived or manifested to create common knowledge to others who are ignorant of these things.

It’s always been the case that the same things that somebody would have missed in music, somebody else with a strong ear would have picked up, revived and made a hit again with a blended trend of incorporating popular culture and modernization into it.

Stevie Wonder Ranks number 1 on the list of 10 of the most famous blind people because where, Italian Opera and Rock music are listened to by specific people, everybody enjoys the funk of Pop music with a style of retro to it.

“Stevie Wonders 80s Hit, “I just called to say I love you” can still be listened today as fresh as it was when the song came out. Wonder has also sung alongside with Michael Jackson and Ray Charles too in one of the main verses of “We are the world” which is yet another evergreen song people love and has been resurrected by some of our newer singers as well.

At the memorial services of many of the world’s greatest music legends and icons would you find Stevie Wonder playing his piano and singing his heart out into the music as every song Stevie Wonder sings, can be considered as a heartfelt and soul sung masterpiece as every lyric is emphasized with passion throughout each song.