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Issue Date: January 2, 2005
"We Are the World" remembered
When the world sang as one.
By Craigh Barboza
The song was an anthem for the fight against world hunger.
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The stars must have been aligned for "We Are the World," a landmark benefit album if there ever was one. Recorded 20 years ago this month, the hit song, with its catchy refrain by a constellation of pop and rock icons calling themselves USA for Africa, was the fastest-selling single in history. It raised an estimated $63 million for African famine relief, funding 500 projects in 18 countries.
Much of the huge success can be attributed to low overhead. "No one took a penny" to record or distribute the album, says Ken Kragen, a former talent manager who orchestrated the event and later flew to Africa to hand out food, medicine and supplies.
We caught up with Kragen and three USA for Africa stars at producer Quincy Jones' hilltop mansion in Bel Air, Calif., to reminisce about that historic night on Jan. 28, 1985, when 45 of the music industry's elite -- from Bruce Springsteen and Tina Turner to Michael Jackson and Cyndi Lauper -- came together to make a better day. We began by asking them why people still love that song.
Diana Ross: Well, first of all, a lot of good things have happened with this charity and this organization. ... [Not only that,] but the song itself is just a beautiful melodic song. It really is one of those melodies that's lasted, isn't it?
Ken Kragen: It touched everybody. The most interesting thing when I got to Africa was talking to the AIDS workers who'd been there awhile working frustratedly, feeling like they were fighting a battle uphill. And suddenly along came "We Are the World," and it was like an anthem for them. It was a demonstration that people cared about what they were doing.
Quincy Jones: We had a lot of people ragging on us, too, saying it was self-aggrandizing. But it doesn't matter, because the artists and everyone in that room came in there to do the right thing, and I'm very proud to have been associated with them. It was real. From 10 o'clock that night to noon the next day, everybody gave it up.
Ross: Before we walked in the room that night, everybody was ready. And it was organized because we left the American Music Awards and came to the studio that night, and I think Q may have been at the door. Somebody was at the door saying, "Check your egos before you walk in."
Jones: I put that in a letter before we got there.
Ross: Anyway, everyone was happy to be there. Whatever they were asked to do -- stand, be in a corner, be over here, be there. They were willing to do it. It was just one of those moments.
Sheila E.: I remember we were also happy that everyone actually showed up. When you plan something like this, you don't know. ... And to have everyone in that room! I mean, even in the video, a lot of times you see me, my mouth was like this [she drops her jaw comically, and everyone cracks up]. I was amazed.
Jones: Another thing that happened, too, that I was impressed with is that we were in a period where there was a big yuppie thing going on -- a lot of "I, me, my" happening. And I think "We Are the World" had a lot to do with transforming that into "we, us and they." A lot of young people, and old people, tell me that. That song made them think about [the suffering of] other people, all over the world.
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