Lionel Richie is an American singer, songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and actor. He has made millions of followers from his soul and R&B music. In 1980, his career took the peak when he began his recordings with the Commodores and in his solo career. Further, his journey with the soul band ‘Commodores’ in 1968.
Throughout his career, he has sold over 90 million, making one of the World’s best-selling artists of all time. He has won several awards in his music career from his hard work and dedication. Moreover, he has been involved in the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and helped to raise $3.1 million after his grandmother survived from Breast cancer. Stay tuned to read more on his information like personal life, career, and net worth.
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Caption: Lionel Richie, the musician and record producer.
Source: Fox News
Lionel Richie: Bio, family, Education
The singer was born on 20 June 1949, in Tuskegee, Alabama, the USA as Lionel Brockman Richie Jr. He was born as the son of Alberta R. Foster and Lionel Brockman Richie, Sr. He has an African-American, English, Scottish, and French-Canadian ethnicity. Moreover, he grew up on the campus of the Tuskegee Institute.
For his education, Richie attended the Joliet Township High School, East Campus. Then, he joined the Tuskegee Institute after getting a tennis scholarship. From there he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics. However, he later considered seriously studying divinity to become a priest in the Episcopal Church. But it was not his cup of tea so stick to his musical career. In addition, he is a member of ‘Kappa Kappa Psi’ and an active member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
Lionel Richie: Career & Life Achievements
Since the mid-1960s, Richie formed a succession of R&B groups and joined as a singer and saxophonist with the ‘Commodores’. After that, the band signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records in 1968 for one record. The Commodores later became established as a popular soul group. The group has released several albums including tracks like ‘Machine Gun’ and ‘Brick House’, amongst others. With the success of his music in the movie ‘Endless Love’, he decided to leave the group and launched a solo career in 1982.
He debuted his solo career with the 1982 album ‘Lionel Richie’ which contained three hit singles. Further, the beginning of his solo career saw one of the most successful balladeers of the 1980s. The album reached number 3 on the music charts and sold over 4 million copies. Following that, he released his net album ‘Can’t Slow Down’ in 1983. The album sold over twice as many copies as the first one. And had won two Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and making him into the first rank of international superstars.
In 1985, he wrote the song ‘Say You, Say Me’ for the film ‘White Nights’ which won an Oscar. The song stayed for four weeks and reached number one in the U.S charts. He has also collaborated with legendary singer Michael Jackson for the charity single. Additionally, he has become a more popular musician in various cities of the Arab States. Also, he performed in Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Libya.
In March 2012, he has released the tenth studio album ‘Tuskegee’ and featured 13 hit songs. The album featured nation stars like Jennifer Nettles, Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton, Darius Rucker, Billy Currington, and Jimmy Buffett. He has also featured as a judge for the reality television show ‘American Idol’.
Lionel Richie: Personal Life & Wife
Moving toward his personal life, he has married and divorced twice. Further, he is dating a beautiful lady at the moment. Previously, he first married his college sweetheart Brenda Harvey in 1975. But they together didn’t produce any child instead they adopt a daughter. They adopted two-year-old Nicole Camille Escovedo informally daughter of Lionel’s band one of the members. The ex-couple legally adopted her at the age of nine and named Nicole Richie.
However, he had an affair with his would-be second wife Diane Alexander while he was still married to Harvey. Their marriage broke up when Brenda found Lionel together with Diane in Beverly Hills. Then they got divorced on 9 August 1993, after nearly 18 years of marriage. Before that, Harvey was arrested for and charged with corporal injury to a spouse, resisting arrest, trespassing, vandalism, battery, and disturbing the peace. After that, on 21 December 1995, Richie married Diane Alexander. The couple produced two children together. They are a son, Miles Brockman (born in May 1994), and a daughter, Sofia Richie (born in August 1998). However, their relationship didn’t go well and ended their marriage in 2003.
Caption: Lionel Richie and his girlfriend Lisa Parigi.
Source: Closer Weekly
The 70-years-old actor currently dating longtime girlfriend Lisa Parigi who is 30 years older than Lionel. Parigi is the founder and CEO of a lifestyle brand called ‘The Estate Collection’. The couple began dating from the year 2014. Additionally, the couple has not made a plan for marrying soon in the future. But Lionel reportedly thinking to propose Lisa for marrying. However, he has stated that he has opened an idea of having children with Parigi.
Lionel Richie: Net Worth & Social Media Profiles
The multi-facet personality has made a huge turnover from his career as a musician and record producer. Therefore, as of now, he has an estimated net worth of $200 million. He has bought the Beverly Hills mansion for $6 million in 1996 now it’s worth more than $11 million. The singer also loves to drive sporty and luxurious cars and has car collection like Range Rover, Mercedes S550, and Ferrari Scaglietti.
Lionel has personal and verified accounts on different social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter. On Instagram, he has an account @lionelrichie with 995k followers. He has a Twitter account @LionelRichie with 321.1k followers. Also, on Facebook, he goes y the handle @LionelRichie with more than 4 million followers.
Lionel Richie: Body Measurements
The actor has a slim body and a well-maintained body who prefers to live a healthy body and mind. Further, he has a tall height of 5 feet 11 inches or 1.81 meters and weighs 77 kg. He has black hair color and dark brown eye color.
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