Lionel Ritchie To Receive The 2011 Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award

Lionel Ritchie, the multi-award winning singer and songwriter, will receive the 2011 Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award from the Harvard Foundation on December 5, 2011. Each year, the Harvard Foundation presents the Humanitarian Award to a person whose specific philanthropic works and deeds have served to improve the quality of our lives, and have inspired us to greater heights.

To qualify for this award Lionel Ritchie was selected for co-writing (with the late Michael Jackson) the charity single "We Are The World", a legendary song that stole the heart of the entire world when released back in 1985. Sales worldwide exceeded 20 million copies, with all monies raised  going to charity, mainly hunger victims in Africa. (In 2010, the song was updated and re-released for all the casualties of the earthquake that devastated Haiti .) "We Are The World" went on to win numerous awards including three Grammy Awards.

Lionel Ritchie is also an advocate for breast cancer research, having helped to raise funds for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Ritchie's humanitarian work goes unrivalled, but his song-writing has inspired many artists, leading numerous world class singers to embrace his work. He rose to fame singing with the Commodores in the late 1960s, and later writing the chart-busting hits "Easy" and "Three Times a Lady". His incredible talents were pursued by other artists, and by the late 1970s he was writing songs for Kenny Rogers  (the number one hit "Lady"), and then went on to produce an album for him a year later - the album Share You Love.

In 1981 he performed a duet with Diana Ross, singing "Endless Love", again topping the charts in the US and UK.

Going solo, in 1983 he again reached pole position in the charts with the heart melting single, "Truly".

Lionel Ritchie has inspired others to greatness. The award is well deserved.

USA for Africa - "We Are The World"