Lionel Richie Hasn't Lost His Magic Touch

I had the pleasure of being front row center for an intimate Lionel Richie concert at San Francisco's Mint this past week. The event itself was sponsored by MySpace as part of the Web 2.0 Summit, an annual event held each year in the city.

The Mint is a historical and decadent building not far from San Francisco's Chronicle, also housed in an old brick structure along Mission Street. Says Supervising Architect Alfred B. Mullett of The Mint's structure: "No pains have been spared to make it, when complete, not only the finest and best constructed building on the Pacific coast, but the best arranged mint in the world.”

The ambience makes any networking event "classy," and to add to it, MySpace had an open bar, delicately dressed cupcakes and Lionel Richie's voice and band echoing through every crack even if you were not crowded in the small room dedicated to the concert.

At 60, this man hasn't lost his magic, his charm or his sex appeal. Nearly every woman I know can somehow associate a romantic moment to a Lionel Richie song. It was oddly amusing to find women in their early twenties, thirties and forties singing along (most knew all the words) to every pop hit, swaying back and forth with hands raised in the air hoping that he'd come along and shake or kiss it. He did a lot of the former and given that the stage was only a mere six to eight inches taller than the viewing floor, being front row center meant watching Richie from a foot away.

It doesn't get much closer than this.

And they didn't even mind us hamming it up on his keyboard after the event.