| Lionel Richie |
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Lionel Richie in France in 2012
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| Born | Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr.
June 20, 1949 (age 66)[1]
Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S. |
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| Residence | Beverly Hills, California, U.S. |
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| Occupation | Singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, record producer, actor |
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| Years active | 1968–present |
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| Spouse(s) | Brenda Harvey Richie
(m.1975–1993)
Diana Alexander Richie
(m. 1995–2004) |
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| Children | 3 |
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| Website | lionelrichie.com |
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| Musical career |
| Genres | Soul, R&B, pop, pop rock, soft rock, country, gospel |
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| Instruments |
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| Labels | Island, Mercury, Motown |
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| Associated acts |
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Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr. (born June 20, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer and actor. Beginning in 1968, he was a member of the musical group
Commodores signed to
Motown Records. Richie made his solo debut in 1982 with the album
Lionel Richie and the number-one hit "
Truly". He has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the
world's best-selling artists of all time.
[2]
Early life[edit]
Richie graduated from
Joliet Township High School, East Campus. A star tennis player in Joliet, he accepted a tennis scholarship to attend Tuskegee Institute, and dropped out of Tuskegee Institute after his sophomore year. Richie seriously considered studying divinity to becoming a priest with the
Episcopal Church, but ultimately decided he was not "priest material" and decided to continue his musical career.
[5] He is a member of
Kappa Kappa Psi[6] and an active life member of
Alpha Phi Alpha[7][8] Fraternity.
The Commodores[edit]
As a student in Tuskegee, Richie formed a succession of
R&B groups in the mid-1960s. In 1968 he became a singer and saxophonist with the
Commodores. They signed a recording contract with
Atlantic Records in 1968 for one record before moving on to
Motown Records initially as a support act to
The Jackson 5. The Commodores then became established as a popular soul group. Their first several albums had a danceable, funky sound, as in such tracks as "
Machine Gun" and "
Brick House." Over time, Richie wrote and sang more romantic, easy-listening ballads such as "
Easy", "
Three Times a Lady", "
Still", and the tragic breakup ballad "
Sail On".
By the late 1970s he had begun to accept songwriting commissions from other artists. He composed "
Lady" for
Kenny Rogers, which hit #1 in 1980, and produced Rogers's album
Share Your Love the following year. Richie and Rogers maintained a strong friendship in later years. Latin jazz composer and
salsa romantica pioneer
La Palabra enjoyed international success with his cover of "Lady," which was played at Latin dance clubs. Also in 1981 Richie sang the theme song for the film
Endless Love, a duet with
Diana Ross. Issued as a single, the song topped the UK, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and US pop music charts, and became one of Motown's biggest hits (in the US it sold 2 million copies and became a platinum single record).
[citation needed] Its success encouraged Richie to branch out into a full-fledged solo career in 1982. He was replaced as lead singer for The Commodores by
Skyler Jett in 1983.
Solo career[edit]
Richie performing in March 2011
Richie's 1982 solo debut album,
Lionel Richie, contained three hit singles: the U.S. #1 song "
Truly", which continued the style of his ballads with the Commodores and launched his career as one of the most successful balladeers of the 1980s, and the top five hits "
You Are" and "
My Love". The album hit #3 on the music charts and sold over 4 million copies. His 1983 follow-up album,
Can't Slow Down, sold over twice as many copies and won two
Grammy Awards, including
Album of the Year, propelling him into the first rank of international superstars. The album contained the #1 hit "
All Night Long" a Caribbean-flavored dance number that was promoted by a colorful music video produced by former
Monkee Michael Nesmith. In 1984, Richie performed "All Night Long" at the closing ceremony of the XXIII Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Several more Top 10 hits followed, the most successful of which was the ballad "
Hello" (1984), a sentimental love song that showed how far Richie had moved from his R&B roots. Richie had three more top ten hits in 1984, "
Stuck on You" (#3), "
Running with the Night" (#7) and "
Penny Lover" (#8). In 1985, Richie wrote and performed "
Say You, Say Me" for the film
White Nights. The song won an
Oscar for his efforts and reached #1 on the U.S. charts, staying there for four weeks, making it the #2 song of 1986 according to
Billboard's Year-End Hot 100 chart, behind the charity single "
That's What Friends Are For" by
Dionne and Friends. He also collaborated with
Michael Jackson on the charity single "
We Are the World" by
USA for Africa, another #1 hit.
In 1986, Richie released
Dancing on the Ceiling, his last widely popular album, which produced a run of US and UK hits including "
Say You, Say Me" (U.S. #1), "
Dancing on the Ceiling" (U.S. #2), "
Ballerina Girl" (U.S. #7), and "
Se La" (U.S. #20), Richie's most recent U.S. Pop Top 20 hit. By 1987, Richie was exhausted from his work schedule and took time away from his career to take care of his father in Alabama.
[citation needed] His father, Lionel Sr., died in 1990. Richie made his return to recording and performing following the release of his first greatest-hits collection,
Back to Front, in 1992.
Since then, his ever-more-relaxed schedule has kept his recording and live work to a minimum. He broke the silence in 1996 with
Louder Than Words, on which he resisted any change of style or the musical fashion-hopping of the past decade, sticking instead with his chosen path of well-crafted
soul music, which in the intervening years has become known as
contemporary R&B.
Richie's albums in the 1990s such as
Louder Than Words and
Time failed to match the commercial success of his earlier work. Some of his recent albums, such as
Renaissance, have returned to his older style and achieved success in Europe but only modest notice in the United States. Since 2004, he has produced a total of six Top 40 singles in the UK.
Later career[edit]
In May 2009, he announced that he would like to get The Commodores back together soon, "or in the next 10 years no one will care."
[10]
On December 31, 2008, Richie performed in
Times Square for the New Year's Eve celebration and ball drop. He also performed on the 2009 season finale for
American Idol with
Danny Gokey.
A new album,
Just Go, was released in 2009.
Richie returned to Australia in 2011 where he and guest artist
Guy Sebastian toured the country and New Zealand with concert dates throughout March and April.
[12] Richie and Guy Sebastian have recorded Richie's 1983 #1 single "
All Night Long" together, to raise money for Australian floods and New Zealand earthquake relief. Richie handpicked Sebastian to support him in Australia and the pair will perform the song together at each concert.
[13][14]
On March 26, 2012, Richie released his tenth studio album,
Tuskegee. It features 13 of his hit songs performed as duets with country stars including
Sugarland's
Jennifer Nettles,
Jason Aldean,
Tim McGraw,
Blake Shelton,
Darius Rucker,
Rascal Flatts,
Kenny Chesney,
Billy Currington,
Little Big Town,
Shania Twain,
Kenny Rogers,
Willie Nelson and
Jimmy Buffett.
[15] In an interview with
American Songwriter magazine, Lionel Richie stated "I'm just gonna stand next to them again with great country artists and hug them."
[16] After years of mediocre sales in the U.S., the album returned him to the top of the
Billboard 200 chart, his first number one album there for more than 25 years, and achieved Platinum status within six weeks of release.
On June 7, 2013, Richie announced on NBC's
The Today Show that he will launch "
All the Hits All Night Long", his first North American tour in over a decade. The tour commenced on September 18 in
Hollywood, Florida, and will end on October 18 in
Los Angeles, California.
[17] Also in June 2013, Richie appeared in a television commercial for the
Lion Nathan alcohol company to promote the "Tap King" draught beer product. Richie reportedly received
A$$1.5 million to appear in the promotional campaign that depicts the musician singing "Hello" at a piano, while the device rests on top of the instrument.
[18]
On June 28, 2015, Richie played to an appreciative 100,000 – 120,000 audience at the
Glastonbury Festival, England. His show was described as "triumphant" by the
BBC and was followed by his return to the top of the UK albums chart with a reissued compilation album of his work as both a solo artist and with the Commodores.
[19]
Popularity in the Arab world[edit]
In recent years, Richie has become a phenomenon in various
Arab states,
[20][21] and has performed in Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Libya.
[22] John Berman for
ABC News reported in 2006 that "Grown Iraqi men get misty-eyed by the mere mention of his name. 'I love Lionel Richie,' they say. They can sing an entire Lionel Richie song." Berman wrote that Richie said he was told that Iraqi civilians were playing "All Night Long" the night
U.S. tanks invaded Baghdad. Richie was against the war, but says he could see a day when he would come and perform in Baghdad.
[22]
Personal life[edit]
On October 18, 1975, Richie married his college sweetheart, Brenda Harvey. In 1983 the couple informally adopted Nicole Camille Escovedo, the two-year-old daughter of one of the members of Lionel's band. They raised her as their daughter,
Nicole Richie, and adopted her legally when she was nine years old.
In 1986, while still married to Harvey, Lionel began a relationship with Diane Alexander. He would later separate from Harvey and, in 1988, she allegedly discovered Richie and Alexander together in a
Beverly Hills hotel room by saying she was "room service" and breaking in the door. A confrontation ensued and Harvey attacked both Richie and Alexander brutally. Harvey was arrested for
spousal abuse,
trespassing,
assault towards Alexander, and
vandalism. Richie and Harvey
divorced on August 9, 1993, after being married nearly 18 years.
[8] Richie married Diane Alexander on December 21, 1995.
[8] They have a son, Miles Brockman
[23] (born May 27, 1994),
[8] and a daughter, Sofia (born August 24, 1998). Richie and Alexander divorced in January 2004.
Richie became a grandfather on January 11, 2008, when Nicole Richie gave birth to a baby girl, Harlow Winter Kate Richie Madden,
[24] with the lead singer of
Good Charlotte,
Joel Madden. Richie's second grandchild, Sparrow James Midnight Madden, was born to the couple on September 9, 2009.
Genealogy[edit]
On March 4, 2011, Richie appeared on NBC's
Who Do You Think You Are?. The program did research into Lionel Richie's genealogy and found out that his great-grandfather (the father of his mother's mother) was the national leader of an early African-American fraternal organization.
[25]
Breast cancer activist[edit]
Richie helped to raise over $3.1 million for the
Breast Cancer Research Foundation. He was the featured performer at the Foundation's Soirée Bouquet, the annual spring gala, in 2003.
Richie told the crowd that his grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer in her 80s, but survived and lived until she was 103 years old. He stated that she was his enduring symbol of hope and his reason for becoming a breast cancer activist.
[26]
Discography[edit]
Filmography[edit]
Awards and honors[edit]
Richie has been nominated for two
Golden Globe awards and won one. In 1982 he was nominated for Best Original Song for the film
Endless Love. In 1986 he was nominated and won the award for Best Original Song for the film
White Nights.
[28] This song also won the Oscar for Best Original Song.
