Every year, the BET Awards honour the top-notch musicians in the music industry with The BET Lifetime Achievement and Humanitarian Award. The Lifetime Achievement Award is given to an artiste or a group who has achieved outstanding performances and contributed a lot to the music industry.
This year around, legendary pop icon Lionel Richie is set to receive the 2014 BET Lifetime Achievement Awards and he will be the 14th recipient of the honourable award. The singer is expected to perform at the award ceremony which will be happening on 29th June at Nokia Theatre LA. The musical guests for the award ceremony will pay tribute to the pop icon as well by performing Richie’s most recognised songs throughout the years.
Whenever Richie releases a new song, his song will hit #1 on the Billboard chart for a long period of time and his most popular song was “Endless Love”, which was a collaboration between Lionel himself and veteran pop icon Diana Ross. He has sold millions of albums to date and bagged 5 Grammys and an Oscar for his song “Say You, Say Me”.
To celebrate the icon’s success in the music industry, we introduce you the top 3 Lionel Richie’s songs you should know!
1. Endless Love
2. All Night Long
3. Hello
With such a successful career in music industry, Lionel Richie’s life has drawn a lot of media attention, especially when it comes to his private life. With all due respect, we decided not to share some of the controversial facts but instead, here’s what you need to know bout the pop icon!
Fun facts about Lionel Richie
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1. Before Lionel Richie went solo, he formed the Mystics and the band became one of the greatest soul bands during the 1960s. The band later changed its name to the Commodores and the word was picked at random out of the dictionary.
2. Richie did not know how to play piano before he formed the band. He later taught himself to play piano by ear.
3. Sazh Katzroy is a character from the popular role-playing game Final Fantasy XIII and the character model is based on the pop icon Lionel Richie.
4. Lionel Richie was not only known for his pop icon status, but he was also known to have a striking resemblance to the character from the animated film, “Toy Story”. Well, hello there Mr. Potato Head!
5. Lionel Richie and the late Michael Jackson were good friends and they’ve known each other since the 1970s. Both of them have worked together on a number of projects including writing the iconic 1985 charity song, “We Are the World”.
6. Richie became a breast cancer activist and raised millions of dollars for the benefit of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation as he was inspired by his grandmother who was a breast cancer survivor and went on to live a ripe old age of 104 years old.
7. He loved his fans so much that he dedicated a photo album #lovemyfans on his Facebook page. Oh yes, this is absolutely what every other celebrity should do.
8. Before Lionel Richie split up with Brenda Harvey, they were married for almost 18 years and legally adopted the famous actress and TV personality Nicole Richie when she was nine years old.
