He is an international superstar, an award-winning, record-breaking musical genius who has written some of the best known and loved songs in popular history. The stuff of legend, Lionel Richie is an artist whose career spans more than three decades with over 100 million albums sold.

Of his numerous accomplishments, Lionel Richie has won an Academy Award, five Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe, 18 American Music Awards, five People's Choice Awards, an NAACP Image Award, honors from ASCAP, a World Music Lifetime Achievement Award, and a well-deserved star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His 15 consecutive top 10 R&B hits (five of which went to No. 1) and 13 consecutive top 10 pop hits (five of which also went to No. 1), stands as one of the most enviable achievements in chart history.

While attending the Tuskegee Institute in 1967, the Alabama-born entertainer was one of the founders of The Commodores. Signed to Motown Records by 1971, "Machine Gun" and "Brick House" established the group as one of the most popular funk bands before Richie even penned the classics "Easy," "Three Times a Lady," and "Sail On."

Lionel began working separately from the Commodores in 1980, after the Kenny Rogers hit version of "Lady" led him to produce the singer's 1981 album. "Endless Love," his 1981 chart-topping duet with Diana Ross (covered in 1994 by Luther Vandross and Mariah Carey), became Motown's most successful single, and further fueled his solo ambitions. But it was the quadruple-platinum release of his self-titled solo debut in 1982 that set Lionel on the path to global superstardom. After that, "Can't Slow Down" sold 10 million copies in 1983 and won the Grammy for Album of the Year, next followed by the massively successful "Dancing on the Ceiling" in 1986.

Later albums "Back to Front," "Louder than Words," "Time," and the multi-million selling, aptly titled retrospective "Definitive Collection," reflect the timeless and classic voice, music and lyrics that define Lionel Richie. "Renaissance" in 2001 was his first release for the Island Records family, soon followed with "Just for You," "Encore" and "Live in Paris." In 2009, "Just Go" was Richie's long-awaited follow-up to the RIAA gold "Coming Home," which made chart history as the first top 10 album debut of his solo career and garnered Grammy nominations for both Best R&B Album and also Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for the No. 1 Urban AC song "I Call It Love."

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