Lionel Richie's name has been mentioned in the same breath as Adele's ever since she released her hit song "Hello," which has people reminiscing about Richie's hit song "Hello" from 1983.
The two songs have been meshed together in funny memes on social media. Richie even reposted one a few months ago, and now he has his sights set on a possible collaboration with Adele.
"We are going to be doing something together—that's already almost in the works … I can almost say that we are talking, but right now she has a mission," Richie told E! News.
Richie said that Adele wants to get a few promotional projects off her plate, and then they'll unite for a song.
"Her mission is [to] get her record out and go on tour, so until she finishes that cycle, that won't happen just yet. She is committed to that," Richie said.
He also said that a bunch of people hit him up about the song and mentioned that a collaboration would make perfect sense. "You have no idea how many people called me on the phone and said, 'Are you going to let her get away with that? She stole 'Hello'!'' Richie said.
"Then I said, 'I don't own 'Hello.' I own the melody,' " he said. "But what it did was it blew everything to the ceiling. The conversation came up. If you say 'Adele' and you say 'Lionel' or 'Lionel and Adele' … that's the best pairing you could have!"
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Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele is a staff writer at The Root and the founder and executive producer of Lectures to Beats, a Web series that features video interviews with scarily insightful people. Follow Lectures to Beats on Facebook and Twitter.
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