★ Lionel Richie feat. Akon – Nothing Left To Give ★

Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr. (born June 20, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer who has sold more than 100 million records
Career
The Commodores
Main article: The Commodores
Back as a student in Tuskegee, he formed a succession of R&B groups in the mid-1960s. In 1968 he became the lead singer and saxophonist with the Commodores. They signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records in 1968 for one record before moving on to Motown Records, being schooled as a support act to the Jackson Five. The Commodores became established as a popular soul group. Their first several albums had a danceable, funky sound (with such tracks as “Machine Gun” and “Brick House”). Over time, Richie wrote and sang more romantic, easy-listening ballads such as “Easy”, “Three Times a Lady” and “Still”.
By the late 1970s he had begun to accept songwriting commissions from other artists. He composed “Lady” for Kenny Rogers, which hit #1 in 1980, and he produced Rogers’ Share Your Love album the following year. Richie and Rogers have maintained a strong friendship in later years. Also in 1981, Richie sang a duet with Diana Ross in the theme song for the film Endless Love. Issued as a single, the song topped the UK and U.S. pop music charts, and it became one of Motown’s biggest hits. Its success encouraged Richie to branch out into a full-fledged solo career in 1982. He was replaced by Skyler Jett, who became the lead singer for The Commodores in 1983.
His debut album, Lionel Richie, produced another chart-topping single, “Truly”, which continued the style of his ballads with the Commodores.
Solo career
He released his self-titled debut in 1982, which contained three hit singles: the huge U.S. #1 song “Truly” that launched his career as one of the most successful balladeers of the 1980′s. Other U.S. Top Five hits “You Are” and “My Love”. The album hit #3 on the music charts and sold over 4 million copies. His 1983 follow up album, Can’t Slow Down, sold over twice as many copies and won two Grammy Awards including Album Of The Year propelling him into the first rank of international superstars. The album spawned the #1 hit “All Night Long”, a Caribbean-flavored dance number that was promoted by a colorful music video produced by former Monkee, Michael Nesmith.
Several more Top 10 hits followed, the most successful of which was the ballad “Hello” (1984), a sentimental love song that showed how far Richie had moved from his R&B roots. Richie had three more Top Ten hits in 1984, “Stuck On You” (#3), “Running With the Night” (#7) and “Penny Lover” (#8). Now described by one critic as ‘the black Barry Manilow’, in 1985 Richie wrote and performed a suitably soothing theme song, “Say You, Say Me”, for the film White Nights, winning an Oscar for his efforts as well as reaching #1 on the U.S. charts and staying there for four weeks, earning him the #1 song of 1985 according to Billboard’s year-end Hot 100 chart. He also collaborated with Michael Jackson on the charity single “We Are the World” by USA for Africa, another #1 hit.
In 1986, Richie released Dancing on the Ceiling, his last widely popular album, which produced a run of US and UK hits including “Say You, Say Me” (U.S. #1), “Dancing on the Ceiling” (U.S. #2),”Ballerina Girl” (U.S. #7) and “Se La” (U.S. #20), The latter is Richie’s most recent U.S. Top Ten hit. The title selection, which revived the lively dance sound of “All Night Long (All Night)”, was accompanied by another striking video, a feature that played an increasingly important role in Richie’s solo career.[1] The critical consensus was that this album represented nothing more than a consolidation of his previous work, though Richie’s collaboration with the country group Alabama on “Deep River Woman” did break new ground.
Aliaune Thiam better known by his middle and stage name Akon (pronounced /ˈeɪkɒn/)[1], is an American R&B singer-songwriter, and record producer, of Senegalese origin. He rose to prominence in 2004 following the release of “Locked Up the first single from his debut album Trouble. His second album, Konvicted, earned him a Grammy Award nomination for the single “Smack That.” He has since founded two record labels, Konvict Muzik and Kon Live Distribution.
Akon often sings hooks for other artists and is currently accredited with over 155 guest appearances and 23 Billboard Hot 100 songs. He is the first solo artist to accomplish the feat of holding both the number one and two spots simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 charts twice.[2]
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