“We Are The World” celebrates 34 years since it was recorded and released.
“We Are The World’ was a charity single originally recorded by the supergroup United Support of Artists (USA) for Africa on the 28th of January 1985 and released on March 7th the same year. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones for the album “We Are the World”.
The song was recorded in response to the 1984 famine in Ethiopia. According to the New York Times, the song’s proceeds which totaled to about 10.8 Million dollars at the time were donated to a new organization called United Support of Artists for Africa (the USA for Africa). The non-profit foundation then fed starving people in Africa, specifically Ethiopia, where around one million people died during the country’s 1983–1985 famine.
The creation of an American benefit single for African famine relief came from the multi-talented activist Harry Belafonte, who along with fundraiser Ken Kragen, brought the vision to reality. Several musicians were contacted by the pair before Jackson and Richie were assigned the task of writing the song. The historic event brought together some of the most famous artists in the music industry at the time.
“We Are The World” was the first single from the album. It received worldwide commercial success, it topped music charts throughout the world and became the fastest-selling American pop single in history. The song also received three Grammy Awards.
In 2010 a remake of the song by an all-star cast of Haitian-born musician Wyclef Jean, Justin Beiber, Enrique Iglesias, Akon, and Celine Dion just to mention a few were done for the earthquake-stricken Haiti. Entitled “We Are the World 25 for Haiti”, the song was released as a single on February 12, 2010. The proceeds from the record aided survivors of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake, helping to rebuild the island nation of Haiti.
