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Lionel Richie American Singer-Songwriter and Record Producer

Ritchie was born on June 20, 1949, in Tuskegee, Alabama, the son of Lionel Brockman Ritchie (1915–1990), a U.S. Army Systems Stake, and Alberta R. Foster (1917–2001), a teacher and schoolteacher. His grandmother Adelaide Mary Brown was a pianist who played classical music. On March 4, 2011, he appeared on NBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? As shown on the page below, his maternal grandfather was the biological son of probable federal judge and slave owner Morgan Wells Brown.
He was also a national leader of the early Black American Indian Organization.

Lionel Brockman Ritchie Jr. (born June 20, 1949) is an American singer, author, record producer, and television personality. Became famous in the 1970s as a musician and co-lead singer of the Motown group the Commodores; The hit singles “Easy”, “Sail On”, “Three Times a Lady” and “Still” were written and recorded with the group before his departure. In 1980, he wrote and produced the US Billboard Hot 100 number one single “Lady” for Kenny Rogers.

In 2016, Richie received the Songwriters Hall of Fame’s highest honor, the Johnny Mercer Award. He was also inducted into the Black International and Entertainment Walk of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.

Richie has been nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and won one. In 1982, he was nominated for Best Original Song for the film Endless Love. In 1986, he was selected and won the award for Best Original Song for the song “Say You, Say Me” from the film White Nights. The song also won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.