Capital One Black Creek
Summer Music Festival  

presents

LIONEL RICHIE with special guest Michael McDonald

Tuesday June 28, 2011 - 8pm

@ The Rexall Centre @ York University

TICKETS ONSALE NOW @ www.blackcreekfestival.com

LIONEL RICHIE’s 30-year success story is the stuff of legend and one few artists can match:  he’s sold over 100 million albums and won countless awards, including an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a staggering five Grammy Awards and the Crystal Award for Humanitarianism. He’s written some of the most known and loved songs in pop history and continues to sell out stadium and arena shows all over the world.

Richie spent more than a decade as the lead singer with the funk-pop group, The Commodores, and grew to become the band’s most famous face, a silky crooner and ladies’ man who composed  ballads like “Easy,” “Sail On” and “Three Times a Lady.” Richie left The Commodores in 1982 and became an even greater success as a solo act, hitting #1 on the pop charts with singles like “Hello,” “All Night Long” and “Say You, Say Me.” He also co-wrote, with Michael Jackson, the USA for Africa benefit tune, “We Are the World,” which was recorded by an all-star cast of popular singers and became a giant hit. “Endless Love,” Lionel Richie’s 1981 duet with Diana Ross on the theme from the film of the same name, became Motown’s best-selling single of all time.  His albums include Lionel Richie (1982), Can’t Slow Down (1983), Dancing on the Ceiling(1985) and Louder Than Words (1996).

With a career that encompasses five Grammys, numerous chart successes, personal and professional accolades, as well as collaborations with some of the world’s most prominent artists, MICHAEL McDONALD remains an enduring force in popular music. A prominent part of the soundtrack to our times, he has been thrilling listeners with his distinctively soulful style for four decades. From ’70s-era Doobie Brothers classics such as “What A Fool Believes” and solo hits like “I Keep Forgettin,’” through two highly acclaimed Motown covers albums and recent genre-busting guest spots with alternative buzz bands Grizzly Bear and Holy Ghost, the five-time Grammy-winning McDonald is that rare thing in contemporary pop music — an artist and songwriter whose work is both timeless and ever-evolving.

At the heart of it all, there is that voice. The dark chocolate tone, the husky vibrato, the keening falsetto that always seems to carry the ache of unrequited love. McDonald belongs to an elite group of blue-eyed soul vocalists — Van Morrison, Rod Stewart, Daryl Hall — whose sound is recognizable after a mere two notes.