Lionel Richie: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm, Today on WCET PBS Encore (48.3)
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About this Broadcast
Singer-songwriter Lionel Richie receives a distinguished honor from the Library of Congress.
2022
English
Stereo
Musical
Tribute
Cast & Crew
Lionel Richie
(Actor)
More Information
Did You Know..
Lionel Richie
(Actor)
Born:
June 20, 1949
Birthplace: Tuskegee, Alabama, United States
Birthplace: Tuskegee, Alabama, United States
Trivia:
Childhood home was actually on the Tuskegee University campus. Grandfather had worked with the college's founder, Booker T. Washington. Hoped at one point to become an Episcopal minister. Taught himself to play the piano by ear. First called the Mystics, his band became the Commodores after the word was picked at random out of a dictionary. The Commodores lost all their equipment to van thieves on a 1969 trip to New York. The Commodores opened for the Jackson Five on many tours in the early 1970s. Richie's compositions rose to the No. 1 position on the U.S. pop singles chart at least once in every year between 1977 and 1985. In 1985, composed (with Michael Jackson) and recorded "We Are the World," a recording benefiting African famine relief. Received the George and Ira Gershwin Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. Has raised millions of dollars for the benefit of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. In 2010, he took part in a remix of "We Are the World" (featuring the likes of Justin Bieber, Pink and Lady Gaga) for the benefit of those hit by an earthquake in Haiti.
