Tauren Wells To Open for Lionel Richie's All The Hits Tour with Mariah Carey

Tauren Wells is the opening act for Lionel Richie's upcoming tour, All The Hits, with very special guest Mariah Carey. Hitting the biggest arenas in 22 markets across the U.S. and Canada, the tour will kick off July 21 and run through September 5 wrapping in Seattle, WA. 

Wells could not be more excited for this momentous opportunity to be part of Lionel Richie's tour and share his music with thousands of concertgoers. "I'm ecstatic to be added to a tour with such music icons," he exclaims. "It's an amazing opportunity God has provided for me to share some of my new music, and I'm grateful to my team for working so hard on my behalf to make dreams like this a reality."

2017 has already been off to a great start for Tauren Wells. Along with the release of his debut EP Undefeated, he also performed at a special fundraising event in support of the 21Strong Foundation held during Super Bowl week with numerous current and former NFL players in attendance. This spring Wells will appear on the B413 No Filter Live Tour and is slated to perform at the KLOVE Fan Awards, and in June he will join the lineup of artists set to perform at KTIS Radio's Joyful Noise 2017 festival.

Lionel Richie Was Told Singing 'Jesus Is Love' Would Ruin His Career

It started out as a tribute to singer Lionel Richie at the BET Awards show on Sunday but by the time Yolanda Adams finished singing the Commodores hit "Jesus Is Love," many who watched the performance which drew a standing ovation, felt like they were brought to church.

"My GOD @Yolandalive just brought the Holy Ghost to the @BET Awards! #JESUS #BETawards2014," tweeted Grammy-nominated recording artist James Fortune.

"#BETAwards tribute to Lionel Ritchie just went next level. Yolanda Adams had church!" tweeted managing editor of The Grio, Joy-Ann Reid.

Adams' tribute was so moving, Richie was moved to respond to her performance as he accepted BET's Lifetime Achievement award.
     "After listening to 'Jesus Is Love,' I'm glad I sang the song first. Otherwise, I would not be up here. That was absolutely amazing," said Richie, according to Billboard.

As part of the tribute, singer John Legend sang a medley of Richie's "Hello," and "Still" while Ledisi performed "Brick House."

Richie explained that before singing the songs he was told that they would have ended his career.
     "These are all the songs that they told me would ruin my career," said Richie before continuing, "Soul is a feeling, not a color. Talent is a God-given gift and not a category. And out of the box, out of the box is that magical place where talent – true talent – goes to live and thrive and breathe. And may you never give that up as long as you're in this business."

Philippa Hanna To Tour With Lionel Richie

Philippa Hanna is arguably British Christian music's best known female singer. But what may have escaped some fans' attention is that in recent times Philippa has started to attract more and more attention from the mainstream music industry. Her future may be even brighter as of October 26 Philippa will be kicking off a tour as support act for megastar Lionel Richie. So how has a singer moved from the rather insular confines of Christian music to the attention of the pop industry big time? Explained Philippa, "Things have been progressing steadily for me over the last couple of years, particularly since I started working with the Grammy Award winning songwriter and producer Eliot Kennedy. I've been able to do a few gigs with mainstream artists and at one of those a guy called Nathan, who works in the industry as a tour manager, saw me perform. He was very enthusiastic and one thing led to another and I was invited to do the Lionel Richie Tuskegee Tour."

Philippa will be singing six songs acoustically. She is already familiar with the challenges of being a support act working before an audience where the majority of the people have never heard of you. "I'm aware of the support act dynamic," she said. "I've already done gigs with Laura White (of X Factor fame) and Graham Kendrick. I know that my role is to support Lionel and help people get in a positive frame of mind."

Although Philippa's final set list is still to be finalised, one song she will be singing will be "I Am Amazing", the singer's powerful antidote to the fake tan, crash diet, skin deep beauty obsessions of our modern world. "I am really looking forward to singing that song to the audience," she commented. "We're going to be offering the song as a free download so that people who hear it can text a number we'll be giving them and get it. It's an important message that people need to hear - that we are wonderfully and amazingly made by God."

Philippa concluded our interview by reminiscing about her father, "When I was growing up I remember my dad singing 'Three Times A Lady' around the house. Now I'm touring with the great singer who recorded that song. God moves in mysterious ways!"

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