Lionel Richie booking

Category / genre: Artists, Contemporary & pop, R&B Soul

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Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr. (born June 20, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer
who has sold more than 100 million records.
Born in Tuskegee, Alabama, Richie grew up on the campus of Tuskegee Institute. His grandfather’s
house was across the street from the home of the president of the Institute. His family moved to Illinois
where he graduated from Joliet Township High School, East Campus, in Joliet. A star tennis player in
Joliet, he accepted a tennis scholarship back at Tuskegee Institute and later graduated with a major in
economics. After receiving his undergraduate degree from Tuskegee, Richie briefly attended graduate
school at Auburn University.
Back as a student in Tuskegee, he formed a succession of R&B groups in the mid-1960s. In 1968 he
became the lead 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, being schooled as a
support act to the Jackson Five. The Commodores became established as a popular soul group. Their
first several albums had a danceable, funky sound (with 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” and “Still”. 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 he produced
Rogers’ Share Your Love album the following year. Richie and Rogers have maintained a strong
friendship in later years. Also in 1981, Richie sang a duet with Diana Ross in the theme song for the
film Endless Love. Issued as a single, the song topped the UK and U.S. pop music charts, and it
became one of Motown’s biggest hits. Its success encouraged Richie to branch out into a full-fledged
solo career in 1982. He was replaced by Skyler Jett, who became the lead singer for The
Commodores in 1983.His debut album, Lionel Richie, produced another chart-topping single, “Truly”,
which continued the style of his ballads with the Commodores.
He released his self-titled debut in 1982, which contained three hit singles: the huge U.S. #1 song
“Truly” that launched his career as one of the most successful balladeers of the 1980s. Other U.S. 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 spawned 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.
Several more Top 10 hits followed, the most successful of which was the ballad “Hello” (1984), a
sentimental lod “Se La” (U.S. #20), The latter is Richie’s most recent U.S. Pop Top Twenty hit. The
title selection, which revived the lively dance sound of “All Night Long (All Night)”, was accompanied
by another striking video, a feature that played an increasingly important role in Richie’s solo career. In
1985, Richie collaborated with Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder on the USA For Africa “We are the
World” project. The critical consensus was that this album represented nothing more than a
consolidation of his previous work, though Richie’s collaboration with the country group Alabama on
“Deep River Woman” did break new ground. By 1987, Richie was exhausted from his work schedule
and after a controversial year laid low taking care for his father in Alabama. His father, Lionel Sr., died
in 1990. He 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. Instead, he stayed
with his chosen path of well-crafted soul music, which in the intervening years has become known as
Contemporary R&B.His albums in the 1990s such as Louder Than Words and Time all failed to achieve the previous
decade’s commercial success. Some of his recent work such as the album Renaissance has returned
to his older style, achieving 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.
In 2002, Richie’s song “Running with the Night” was featured on the Rockstar North video game Grand
Theft Auto: Vice City though the song was removed from later versions of the game. In 2004, he
appeared on Canadian Idol as his songs were featured during a Canadian Idol week. Later in 2004, he
also appeared on the British motoring television series Top Gear in the “Star in a Reasonably Priced
Car” segment where he was interviewed by host Jeremy Clarkson. During his lap, the Suzuki Liana he
was driving lost a wheel due to hard cornering. The incident (jokingly) caused Clarkson to beg Richie
not to sue the BBC for crashing. In November 2005, Lionel Richie performed with Kenny Rogers on a
CMT Crossroads special. The show gave an informative insight into their friendship both in and out of
the music world. Richie was also the headliner at a 2000 Fourth of July tribute concert with Fantasia
Barrino at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Richie released his eighth studio album entitled “Coming
Home” on September 12, 2006. The first single of the album was “I Call It Love” and was premiered in
July 2006, becoming his biggest hit in the U.S. in ten years. The album was an incredible success for
Richie in the United States, peaking at #6. His adopted daughter Nicole Richie stars in the music video
for this track. On December 9, 2006, Richie hosted and performed live on the British television show
An Audience with Lionel Richie. On February 11, 2007, Richie performed his 80s hit song “Hello” on
the televised Grammy Awards show.
On November 25, 2007, he made a surprise appearance on the Australian Idol grand finale performing
“All Night Long (All Night)” at the Sydney Opera House. Richie donated to Barack Obama’s 2008
Presidential campaign. On May 2, 2008, Lionel Richie was the 21st recipient of the George and Ira
Gershwin Lifetime Achievement Award at UCLA’s annual Spring Sing. In accepting the award, Richie
said: “Forget about surviving 30 some odd years in the music business, Lionel Richie survived 27
years of Nicole Richie”. Recently, he has announced that he would like to get The Commodores back
together soon, “or in the next 10 years no one will care.”
In November 2008, Richie appeared in South Africa for the radio show called The Rude Awakening on
Highveld Stereo where Jeremy Mansfield created a show called Lionels where the 4 Rude Awakening
DJs Paul Rotherham, Sam Cowen, Whackhead Simpson and Bongani Nxumalo all performed as
contestants in this Idols style show called Lionels. Richie showed how much of a good sport he was
when Sam Cowen threw off the wig she was wearing to declare how much she loved him, Richie went
along with it – even running around the room so she could chase him. On December 31, 2008, Richie
performed in Times Square for the New Year’s Eve celebration and ball drop. Lionel Richie also
performed on May 20, 2009 for the season finale of American Idol season 8 with the contestant Danny
Gokey. After the Success of “Coming Home ” in 2006 a new album “Just Go” was released in the
Spring of 2009 – around this time Lionel confirmed there is to be a Commodores Reunion in the near
future. On July 7, 2009, Richie performed “Jesus is Love” at Michael Jackson’s Memorial Service.