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When it got here time for the 2022 American Music Awards to rejoice the legacy and affect of Lionel Richie, it took a number of superstars – together with certainly one of 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 largest piano bar in Los Angeles. The two every took a flip taking part in a snippet of a Lionel Richie hit, displaying the person’s affect all through the many years. The tribute ended with “We Are The World,” and everybody within the theatre joined.
Icons solely pic.twitter.com/idLpYZeLA8
— Lyndsey Havens (@LyndseyAlana) November 21, 2022
Some of the evening’s greatest stars — like Ari Lennox — got here out to sing, and Lionel couldn’t assist himself. He jumped on stage and joined in.
#AMAs King Stevie redeemed himself with the We Are The World sing-along as a result of I do know at one level Lionel was trying like Da F 🥴😳. There was nobody else who may’ve completed the tribute??? 😂😂😂. #AMAs pic.twitter.com/ZAMfwJoNTC
— whataboutpromblane (@whataboutpromb1) November 21, 2022
Linda homenagem ao #lionelrichie no #AMAs cantando “We Are The World” 🥺 pic.twitter.com/2Ct0Y520gv
— Rafael dos Anjos 1️⃣3️⃣ (@_rafa84) November 21, 2022
“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,” mentioned Lionel when accepting the Icon Award, who thanked Dick Clark, earlier than thanking his children – 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, mentioned 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.
#AMAs Icon Award winner: Lionel Richie 👏 pic.twitter.com/YbDtFUbuV2
— E! News (@enews) November 21, 2022
The AMAs introduced in early November that Lionel would obtain the Icon Award on the 2022 ceremony and make historical past as nicely: along with his 2022 efficiency, he turns into the one artist to be featured on the AMAs stage each decade for the reason that 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 following 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 mentioned in a press release concerning the Icon Award. “I can recall one of many first instances I obtained 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 affect on numerous folks world wide and on the music trade as a complete,” government producer and showrunner Jesse Collins mentioned in a press release. “From the hundreds of thousands of {dollars} raised because 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 Hall 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 have to say additionally that there are folks that have truly needed to tolerate fairly a bit,” he mentioned within the speech, admitting he most popular tour life over home life. “Sometimes whenever you fall in love with the music enterprise, you are inclined to fall out of affection and other people 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 kids – together with Sofia Richie and Nicole Richie – earlier than including, “I need to thank them for truly sitting via my magical thriller tour. And I need to let everybody know that I’m most likely not coming house for fairly some time. I’m in love with this enterprise. I like what I do. Thank you a lot for this superb second.” (h/t Vulture)
