Oop! Lionel Richie says he’s “pissed” after Diana Ross sang “Happy Birthday” to Beyoncé, while continuing to ignore his now 41-year-old request to perform their duet “Endless Love” together for the fans.
In 1981, Lionel Richie and Diana Ross recorded and debuted their classic duet “Endless Love” for Motown as the theme for Franco Zeffirelli’s film of the same name. The song, deemed the top love song of all time, would spend nine weeks at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 list. The song would also receive five Grammy Award nominations, and nominations at the Academy Awards (Oscars) and Golden Globe Awards.
But despite all of the success garnered by the classic 1981 track, Lionel Richie says he’s been trying to get Diana Ross to perform their hit duet with him for decades, and has gotten snubbed every time. It should be noted that the two only ever performed the song together once, at the 1982 Academy Awards.
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Now, before his latest mention of being ignored by the songstress, Richie last spoke out in June 2018. At the time, Richie was performing at the Hampton Court Palace Festival in London on June 6. The singer revealed that he has been trying to convince Ross to sing the track with him ever since it released.
Richie told the crowd, “One of my favorite songs to sing is ‘Endless Love,’ and for 37 years I have asked Miss Diana Ross to sing it with me, and for 37 years she has said ‘no.’ But I still ask her every time. Is she here tonight? No. So what I want all the ladies here to be Diana Ross, will you sing it with me?”
Happily obliging, the audience roared in agreement, and after Richie ended the romantic balled, he thanked everyone and said, “Who needs Diana Ross? Give yourself a round of applause, we have thousands of singers like Diana Ross in the crowd.”
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Since his 2018 reveal, Lionel Richie again made mention of his decades-old request to Diana Ross. During his San Francisco show on Friday (September 8) at the Chase Center, Richie and Ross’ “Endless Love” song began to play. Still recalling all of the success the song has achieved and how big of a tune it was for him, Richie began a playful rant at this point in the show.
As the song played, the audience started to sing along, and the singer teased and hinted that Ross was going to come out on stage and sing her part on the duet, however she did not. Instead, Richie began his rant and brought up Ross serenading Beyoncé for her birthday. Richie said, “[For] 37 years, Diana said ‘No [to singing the song].’ What made you think tonight she was going to show up? She ain’t coming. She’s over there singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Beyoncé.” Then he scoffed, “Pissed me off.”
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After going off on a rant for about a minute, Richie returned to the song and as he did in 2018 and every other time he performed the song, he asked the women in the crowd to singer Ross’ part of the duet.
Now, if you’re wondering why the two haven’t performed their duet since 1982’s Academy Awards, Richie told Andy Cohen in August 2021 that usually it was either because he was on tour or she was on tour, or in different parts of the world. He said, “We just could never get our schedules together.” Richie added, “That’s one of the things that I missed about my entire career, having us on stage together would have been amazing.”
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