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When it got here time for the 2022 American Music Awards to have a good time the legacy and impression of Lionel Richie, it took a number of superstars – together with one among Lionel’s fellow icons. Charlie Puth and Stevie Wonder kicked off the tribute to Lionel, 73, this 12 months’s recipient of the Icon Award. Stevie, 72, and Charlie, 30, teamed up for a medley of Lionel’s hits, turning the Microsoft Theatre into the most important piano bar in Los Angeles. The 2 every took a flip enjoying a snippet of a Lionel Richie hit, exhibiting the person’s impression all through the many years. The tribute ended with “We Are The World,” and everybody within the theatre joined.
A number of the evening’s largest stars — like Ari Lennox — got here out to sing, and Lionel couldn’t assist himself. He jumped on stage and joined in.
“I began out right here, on the AMAs, and my profession, to at the present time, forty years later, I’m again on the AMAs,” stated Lionel when accepting the Icon Award, who thanked Dick Clark, earlier than thanking his kids – Sofia Richie, Nicole Richie, and Miles Richie – and their moms, for serving to elevate them.
Smokey Robinson, the primary host of the AMAs again in 1972, stated he was “honored” to current the award to his “brother,” Lionel Richie. From there, audiences had been handled to a retrospective of Lionel’s profession, from his time with the Commodores, to his breakout as a solo artist.
The AMAs introduced in early November that Lionel would obtain the Icon Award on the 2022 ceremony and make historical past as properly: along with his 2022 efficiency, he turns into the one artist to be featured on the AMAs stage each decade because the present’s creation in 1974 (per Billboard). The Icon Award is his 18th general AMA, along with his first two coming with the ban, the Commodores, and the remainder gained as a solo artist. In 1984, Richie was the primary to host the AMAs by himself. The next 12 months, he returned because the host and gained a then-record six awards that evening.
“I’m immensely grateful for a profession that has taken me to locations I by no means imagined that I’d go, from arenas worldwide to studio units to the AMA stage,” Lionel Richie stated in an announcement in regards to the Icon Award. “I can recall one of many first instances I bought to carry out on the AMAs. It was to sing ‘We Are the World’ among the many most iconic musicians of my technology, so it’s surreal to be receiving this recognition 36 years later.”
“Lionel Richie has had a profound impression on numerous individuals all over the world and on the music trade as a complete,” government producer and showrunner Jesse Collins stated in an announcement. “From the thousands and thousands of {dollars} raised as a consequence of ‘We Are the World’ to the worldwide affect his distinctive sound nonetheless has at the moment, Richie is the definition of a residing legend, and honoring him with the AMAs Icon Award is a no brainer.”
This efficiency will cap off a banner 12 months for Lionel. In 2022, Lionel was inducted into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame as a part of the Class of 2022, which included Eminem, Dolly Parton, Carly Simon, Eurythmics, Duran Duran, and Pat Benatar.
Lionel Richie (Alexis C Glenn/UPI/Shutterstock) “I need to say additionally that there are those that have really needed to tolerate fairly a bit,” he stated within the speech, admitting he most well-liked tour life over home life. “Generally once you fall in love with the music enterprise, you are inclined to fall out of affection and folks don’t perceive what the hell you’re doing over. I missed 25 years of pep rallies, bonfires, and household reunions.”
From there, he thanked his three youngsters – together with Sofia Richie and Nicole Richie – earlier than including, “I wish to thank them for really sitting by way of my magical thriller tour. And I wish to let everybody know that I’m in all probability not coming residence for fairly some time. I’m in love with this enterprise. I really like what I do. Thanks a lot for this wonderful second.” (h/t Vulture)