Lionel Richie has been in the music business for a long time, he was born in 1949 in Tuskegee, Alabama and graduated from college with a Bachelor of Economics making music since he was very young.
His musical talent led him to form various rhythm and blues bands.
After creating bands, in 1968 he joined the most successful band of his career, the legendary Commodores, where he took over soloist, pianist and saxophonistR.
They became famous thanks to Brick House.
With the Commodores, they switched labels from Atlantic to Motown Records, where they became famous for their classics. “Brick house”“, “Machine gun”, “Easy” and “Three times a lady”.
Writing songs for other musicians
As happens when there are talented musicians in the band, Richie started writing songs for other musicians; he wrote “Lady” for Kenny Rogers, which became a number one hit in the early 80s. After this success, he wrote a song “Endless love” as a soundtrack to the film, the song, which, in a duet with Diana Ross, was supposed to be nominated for an Oscar.
Richie leaves The Commodores
As soon as he became known as an independent musician, this opened the way for him to leave the group and start a solo career.
His debut album sold over four million copiesand throughout the 1980s he achieved musical success.
Academy Award Winner
In 1985 he wrote and performed the song “Say: “You”, say: “Ifor the soundtrack to the film “White Nights”, the song that won him his first Oscar for Best Original Song.
praise
Lionel Richie has won four Grammy Awards including Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Producer of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
american idol
In 2019, Richie joined the judges on American Idol, where he earned $10 million from his first season as a judge on the hit show.
After all the success, Lionel Richie’s net worth is estimated at $200 million.