My afternoon with Lionel Richie

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As I sit here listening to Lione Richie's "You Are," I'm thinking "what made me download this and all of Nicole Richie's dad's hits from the 80's/early 90s in the first place?" Ah, that fateful day not so long ago in late September when I was hanging out with a friend around Times Square while on vacation and... ahem... we got approached by a BET person who asked us if we'd join the audience of his live BET special.

My friend and I had just gotten rejected by the audience gatekeepers at the Montel Williams show nearby. (Yeah I know. Long story. All I can say is: I was on vacation, people.) So guess what we said?

If you still don't know, here are some visual mementos of what turned out to be a fun afternoon after all with a vaguely sacharin but also very nice man whose appearance hasn't changed an iota since the videos for "All night" or "Hello"...

Connection to Haiti/the Caribbean? Well aside from the fact that both my friend and I are Haitian, well, uh ... oh yeah, a long long time ago many Haitians were convinced that 'Richie' was really 'Riche' (with an accent aigu on the 'e' that I am too sleepy to drum up right now) and that Richie was therefore Haitian. Thankfully the man debunked that rumor for me during the taping when he kept referring to his hometown of Tuskegee, Alabama...


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lionel richie - BET - haiti - nicole richie

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