Lionel Richie: Legacy Beyond Grammy and Oscars

July 12, 2016

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  Photo credit: hulkshare.com

  “Let the music play on would be my legacy.” – Lionel Richie

  Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr. is a music icon and an international superstar with 100 million albums sold worldwide, an Oscar winner, 4-time Grammy winner and 16-time American Music Award winner.

  American singer/songwriter Lionel Richie was born on June 20, 1949 in Tuskegee, Alabama. He grew up in the campus of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

  During his stay at the institute, Richie founded the Commodores, one of the most popular R&B acts of the 70’s. He played the saxophone, perform some vocals and wrote songs for the group. He wrote the hit songs, ‘Easy’, ‘Brick House’ and ‘Three Times a Lady’.

  In 1980, Richie left the Commodores to pursue a solo career. The following year, his ‘Endless Love’ duet with Diana Ross quickly climbed the charts. In 1982, he released his self-titled debut album which became a hit on the U.S. Billboard charts. In the same year, he won his first Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

  In 1984, Richie released his second album ‘Can’t Slow Down’ which featured two chart-topping hits ‘All Night Long’ and ‘Hello’. The success of his second album won him a Grammy for Best Album of the Year, which made him as one of the biggest star of the 80’s music scene.

  Years after releasing ‘Dancing on the Ceiling’, Richie encountered a series of personal challenges and issues which led him to hiatus.

  

  Photo credit: huffingtonpost.com

  Lionel Richie made his comeback by releasing the album ‘Louder Than Words’ in 1996.

  In 2012, Lionel went back to his Tuskegee roots by re-working some of the biggest hits as duets with country superstars such as Shaina Twain, Kenny Rogers, Willie Nelson, Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton, Jason Aldean, Darius Rucker and Little Big Town. The album became one of the biggest milestone of his career after it reached No.1 on the Billboard Top 200 list and garnered critical acclaim.

  On February 13, 2016, Lionel Richie was honored as the 2016 MusiCares Person of the Year at the star-studded Grammy Week Gala.

  Stream Lionel Richie’s greatest hits:

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