Lionel Richie
Lionel Brockman Richie (born June 20, 1949 in Tuskegee , Alabama ) is an American soul singer , songwriter , record producer and saxophonist . It won four Grammys in the 1980s and an Oscar in 1986 .
Life
Richie was born in Tuskegee, Alabama , and grew up near Tuskegee University . His family later moved to Joliet , Illinois , where he went to high school . Richie was an excellent tennis player in his high school days , so he received a scholarship to Tuskegee University. At the beginning of his student days his music career began when he met the later band member Thomas McClary there .
In 1975 Lionel Richie and Brenda Harvey married. In 1984 they took Nicole, the three-year-old daughter of an alcoholic musician from Richie's band, into their home. In 1987 the couple adopted the girl, who has been called Nicole Richie ever since . In 1991, Lionel and Brenda Richie divorced.
Richie married a second time in 1996, this time Diane Alexander. They both have two children together. In 2004 the couple divorced.
Richie is an active patron of the United States Society for the Study and Fight against Breast Cancer .
Career
Richie co-founded the R&B group The Commodores in 1968 . After a record on Atlantic Records , the Commodores moved to Motown and became the opening act for the Jackson Five . In the 1970s, the Commodores became one of the most successful soul and R&B groups. Lionel Richie was the group's lead singer, saxophonist, and songwriter. The greatest hits of the Commodores such as Easy and Three Times a Lady come from him . When Richie had success as a songwriter for other artists, the collaboration with the group broke up. Richie wrote the US number one hit Lady for country singer Kenny Rogers . In 1981, Richie reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with the theme song from the movie Endless Love , a duet with Diana Ross .
In 1982 Richie began his solo career with the debut album Lionel Richie and had another number one hit in the US with Truly . His next two albums Can't Slow Down and Dancing on the Ceiling cemented his status as a superstar. A highlight of his career was the appearance at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. There Lionel Richie sang All Night Long (All Night) in front of a television audience of about 2.3 billion people. In 1985 he co-wrote the charity song We Are the World with Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones , which became a worldwide hit. In 1986, Richie won the Oscar for the song Say You, Say Me from the film White Nights (in the same year he was also nominated for an Oscar for his involvement in Miss Celie's Blues (Sister) ). After the album Dancing on the Ceiling he took a longer creative break, partly due to a disease of the vocal cords.
After the successful best-of album Back to Front in 1992, Richie was no longer able to build on his successes of the 1980s commercially in the further course of the 1990s. In 1996 he was seen in a supporting role ("Britsloe") in the film Rendezvous with an Angel . He made a musical comeback in 2000 with the album Renaissance . With this album and the hit Angel he was able to place himself in the top chart regions, especially in Europe. Despite falling record sales, Lionel Richie's concert tours were still well attended. His album Coming Home was released in September 2006. On February 1, 2007 he received the Golden Camera for his life's work. On March 20, 2009, he released the album Just Go , and Richie went on tour, which also took him to Germany.
In 2012 Richie released a country album, which he named after his hometown Tuskegee and on which he reinterpreted many of his songs with many different artists from the country genre (including with Shania Twain , Kenny Rogers and Jimmy Buffett ). As part of this album, he made a major tour of Germany from October to December 2012, during which he was supported by the Hamburg singer Oceana as the opening act.
Richie has sold nearly 100 million albums and placed 22 hits in the US top ten - 13 of them in his most successful phase between the summer of 1981 and the beginning of 1987.
Awards
- 1983: for the best male vocal performance in pop with the song Truly
- 1985: for the album of the year Can't Slow Down
- 1985: Grammy Producer of the Year (excluding Classical, shared with James Anthony Carmichael and David Foster )
- 1986: for the song of the year as co-author of We Are the World ( USA for Africa )
- 1986: for the song Say You, Say Me in the film White Nights
- 2009: Special award for the outstanding musical oeuvre
- 2007: for his life's work
Others
- 1994: Induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame
Discography
literature
- Sharon Davis: Lionel Richie - Hello . Hannibal Verlag, Höfen 2009, ISBN 978-3-85445-301-7 (Original edition: Lionel Richie )
Web links
- Official website (English)
- Official website (German)
- Lionel Richie at laut.de
- Works by and about Lionel Richie in the catalog of the German National Library
- Lionel Richie in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Richie, Lionel |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Richie, Lionel Brockman (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 20, 1949 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Tuskegee , Alabama , USA |