'Jimmy Kimmel Live!': Lionel Richie reveals 'American Idol' finale will have a 'We Are the World' performance
Despite the quarantine season, talk show host Jimmy Kimmel continues to entertain us from his home on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’. On the latest episode, the talk show host roped in none other than the legendary Lionel Richie as the guest on the show.
The duo discussed a lot of things ranging from interpreting what Lionel’s lyrics in a song mean to his plans to grow back his afro. During their fun banter, the topic of ‘American Idol’ came up. Lionel is the judge on the ongoing Season 18 of ‘American Idol’ alongside Katy Perry and Luke Bryan.
The show’s finale is scheduled for Sunday, May 17. Lionel gave a peek into what we can expect to see during the finale. The singer who is the brain and voice behind hits like ‘We are the World’, revealed that there would be a performance of ‘We Are the World’, during the finale. 'We Are the World' is a song originally recorded in 1985 to raise funds for African famine relief.
It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian for the album 'We Are the World'.
Kimmel asked Lionel who would be performing it, whether he or one of the contestants? Lionel then revealed that everybody would be singing along to the iconic song. Katy, Luke, and all the contestants alongside Ryan Seacrest would be singing the hit number during the finale.
Just like us, even Kimmel was excited at the thought of watching all the talented singers singing such a beautiful song together. Aside from revealing snippets of ‘American Idol’ finale, Lionel also spoke about his strong bond with fellow musician Kenny Rogers.
He revealed that although everybody including Rogers considered their relationship (Kenny Rogers and Lionel Richie’s) as that of brothers, Richie explained that he always considered Rogers more as a father figure. He then went off to heap praises at the late legendary singer and talked about how Rogers was a great mentor to him at every step of his career and life and paid his respect to the late musician.
‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ airs on all the weekdays on ABC. You can also catch all the latest home-edition episodes on Jimmy Kimmel’s official YouTube channel.