Rihanna, Usher, Stevie Wonder and John Legend have paid tribute to Lionel Richie as the 2016 MusiCares Person of the Year.
Advertisement
Lenny Kravitz kicked off the proceedings inside with a rousing cover of “Running With the Night”.
“One of the guys from Nirvana just sang ‘You Are.’ Those must have been some good muffins”, said show host Jimmy Kimmel. “It’s going to be a weird night”. Among the most solid performances were Rihanna’s take on “Say You, Say Me”, John Legend’s performance of “Easy”, The Band Perry’s three-part country-tinged harmony on “Endless Love”, and gospel star Yolanda Adams’ performance of “Jesus Is Love”. “I grew up watching The Simple Life!”. This high! But I didn’t know who it was from.
Kevin Spacey, Dave Grohl and Stevie Wonder also attended the event, which ended in an onstage group sing-along of Lionel’s All Night Long. Richie sent the rocker a huge basket of muffins as consolation, and Grohl saluted him as the “Muffin Man”. “A few days later, I got a text from my tour manager saying ‘Lionel Richie called and wanted to know if you got that muffin basket?’ Lionel, tonight, I didn’t bring you a muffin basket, I brought you this”.
The highlights, however, came from performers who felt a little more at home in Richie’s catalog.
Still, any dodgy bits were quickly swept away by Saturday’s guest of honor, who after describing himself as “the father of mankind” (thanks to the number of babies made to his love songs) closed the show with two songs that clearly demonstrated his range. “Lionel had a dream”, Kimmel told a star-studded audience that included Quincy Jones, Berry Gordy, Sharon Stone, Gayle King, Rita Wilson, David Crosby, Paul Anka and politician Nancy Pelosi.
“If Mozart was black, would he be Mozart?” he asked the attendees. “The answer is ‘no, ‘ because they would not play him on the radio”, he said.
Advertisement
“Today I’m standing here celebrating all the songs they told me would ruin my career”, he continued to hearty applause.
