Home Tags Posts tagged with "lionel richie"
Glastonbury 2015: Lionel Ritchie's Performance Draws More than 100,000 People
Lionel Richie's performance has drawn the biggest crowd of this year's Glastonbury Festival, with at least 100,000 people estimated to have watched the singer.
The Pyramid Stage field at Worthy Farm was packed to see Lionel Richie playing hits like Dancing on the Ceiling, Hello and Say You Say Me.
This year's festival closed with The Who performing their hits on the Pyramid Stage as part of a world tour that has been billed as their last.
Paul Weller and Patti Smith also played and the Dalai Lama visited the site.
The 177,000 festivalgoers are now making their way home from the Somerset site.
Photo Reuters
Lionel Richie's performance in the festival's traditional Sunday afternoon "legend" slot will be remembered as one of this year's highlights.
Organizers suggested the field could have been near its 120,000 capacity when the star played.
Lionel Richie's set included hits like All Night Long, We Are The World, Easy and Three Times A Lady.
Fans chanted the singer's name and the security guards in front of the stage had even learned a dance that they performed when Lionel Richie played Dancing on the Ceiling.
After that song, the singer looked disbelievingly at the size of the crowd and repeated: "What the hell is going on?"
Lionel Richie was following in the footsteps of stars like Dolly Parton, Tom Jones and Neil Diamond, who have taken the Sunday afternoon slot in the past.
At the end of the night, The Who brought the festival to a close with a greatest hits set that included rock classics like Pinball Wizard, Baba O'Riley and Won't Get Fooled Again.
They also took a dig at Kanye West's claim, made during his Saturday headline slot, to be the world's greatest rock star.
The Who's Glastonbury appearance was part of a world tour to mark their 50th anniversary, which singer Roger Daltrey has described as "the beginning of the long goodbye".
Elsewhere at the festival, dance favorites The Chemical Brothers ended proceedings on a high on the Other Stage, while there were also appearances by Ryan Adams, art-pop auteur FKA Twigs and FFS – a group made from merging Franz Ferdinand and Sparks.
Glastonbury 2015: Lionel Richie to play Sunday teatime slot
Lionel Richie has confirmed he will play the Sunday teatime slot at the 2015 Glastonbury Festival, organizers have announced.
He is the first artist confirmed for the next year event.
"We are over the moon," said festival co-organizer Emily Eavis, daughter of Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis.
"We felt very lucky to get the call from a true Motown legend asking to play next year," she continued.
Lionel Richie will play Glastonbury 2015 (photo Getty Images)
"He's got so many amazing songs, to see him perform here on the farm is just going to be wonderful."
Lionel Richie, 65, said he was "really excited to play Glastonbury next year as it's one of the most iconic festivals in the world".
"It has a phenomenal history and the alumni of artists who have previously played is incredible so I'm honored to be joining that club.
"It will be a really special moment for me and I can't wait to share it with everyone
"I can now say <<Yes, I'm playing Glastonbury>>."
Dolly Parton played the Sunday teatime slot at the 2014 festival, following in the footsteps of such acts as Neil Diamond, Shirley Bassey and Tom Jones.
Tickets for the 2015 Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset sold out in less than 30 minutes, before any acts on the line-up had been announced.
Lionel Richie says Whitney Houston could be alive
Lionel Richie believes that Whitney Houston was the only person who could have saved herself from drugs.
Lionel Richie, 62, was a friend of Whitney Houston, who tragically died after allegedly ingesting alcohol and prescription drugs last month, but knows from his experiences with daughter Nicole, who had problems with heroin and cocaine abuse, that she was the only person who could have turned her life around.
He told UK TV show BBC Breakfast: "You know … I know from Nicole's experience. At some point you've got to realize the only person that's going to save you – Nicole, or Whitney – is going to be yourself.
"This is s a tough business, a very tough business and you don't hear this story every day, about people who are in our business, but it happens every day.
"The stories you don't hear are the stories of the people who are not famous."
Lionel Richie believes that Whitney Houston was the only person who could have saved herself from drugs
Lionel Richie also said he can see how stars find it hard to see sense when they are surrounded by people who tell them everything they do is right.
Asked about being surrounded by such people, Lionel Richie added: "I'm not immune to that, we've had that all the time.
"I get suspicious when from the time I wake up in the morning to when I go to bed in the evening everything I did was OK.
"That's great but you know there's nothing you could do all day that's perfect, so you get suspicious and go, <<Something's wrong if I'm right all the time.>> "
Nicole managed to overcome her problems when she checked into rehab in 2003, and Lionel Richie recently revealed how he even went to stay in the facility with her to help her through the treatment.
Lionel Richie said: "I was about to go out on tour and I said, <<Cancel the tour, we are checking into rehab>>. We as a family and, of course, I remember that look on her face when she walked down that hall and she said, <<Are you going to be here?>>
"I said, <<I'm right down the hall. I'm not going anywhere>>, because to me, there's nothing more important, there's no other greater signal you can send your kid – not only do I love you, but I want to demonstrate it."
Benghazi report finds no wrongdoing by Obama administration in responding to consulate attack
The Benghazi report has found no wrongdoing by the Obama administration in responding to the deadly 2012 attack on the …Read More »
Video of Pharrell Williams crying on Oprah show becomes viral
Pharrell Williams' emotional speech at the inaugural iHeartRadio Music Awards came two weeks after a clip of him crying on …Read More »
ISIS Bomb Attacks Kill At Least 75 People in Baghdad
ISIS militants have killed at least 75 people in two bomb attacks carried out in Baghdad, Iraqi officials say. Some …Read More »
Pope Francis Canonizes Palestinian Nuns Mariam Bawardy and Marie Alphonsine Ghattas
Two 19th Century nuns, who lived in what was then Ottoman-ruled Palestine and were native Arabic speakers, will be canonized …Read More »
US shutdown postpones EU free trade pact negotiations
US and EU negotiations on a sweeping free trade pact have been postponed because of a partial government shutdown in …Read More »