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Adele's Lionel Richie duet is 18 months away

Written by . Published: December 08 2015

Adele is unable to head into the studio with Lionel Richie to work on their planned collaboration for at least 18 months.


The veteran crooner recently hinted at plans to team up with the British singer following comparisons between their two hit songs, both called Hello, but Lionel has now insisted the duet is a long way off because Adele is focusing on her 2016 tour.


"How the question came up was, 'Lionel, what about you and Adele?' And I said, 'I'm sure somewhere down the line we're going to do this'," he tells the London Evening Standard.


"But right now... she is concentrating on her album and starting her first big tour. So we're about a year and a half away from any kind of collaborating at all because right now she's going to be focused on staying healthy and making this tour work.


"So somewhere down there I would love to kidnap her and put her in a room somewhere (to work), because she's really a great writer. I'd love to work with her."


Lionel previously revealed he was swamped with phone calls after Adele released her comeback single which shares the title of one of his most famous hits.


"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!'" he told E! News. "Then I said I don't own Hello. I own the melody. But, what it did was it blew everything to the ceiling..."


The music legend also insisted he is a big fan of a music video mash-up of both versions of the song, which went viral on the Internet.


"Wasn't that hilarious? Hilarious!," he added.

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