Stars Align for 'We Are the World' Remake

By Sam Brand Posted Feb 2nd 2010 12:42AM

We are still the world if Quincy Jones and an all-star squad of contemporary music stars have anything to sing about it. On Monday, Jones, Lionel Richie and Wyclef assembled what appears to be the entire VIP section from Sunday night's Grammys to re-record the monster selling single ($63 Million in sales!). Can "We Are The World – 25 For Haiti" bring home that kind of bacon in the Internet Age? We are about to find out...

On Monday night, The Jonas Brothers, T-Pain, Miley Cyrus, Celine Dion, Kanye West, Brian Wilson and dozens of others showed up at Henson Recording Studios, the same studio where the original was recorded 25 years ago.

Last time, the cause was starvation in Africa, in particular the devastating Ethiopian famine of 1984-85. This time it's Haiti, where last month's earthquake killed nearly 200,000 and left as many as 1 million Haitians homeless.

And this time the world has Justin Bieber.

And Lil Wayne, Harry Connick, Jr., Snoop Dogg, Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand (rumor has it she gets a solo), Josh Groban, Usher, and... Jeff Bridges?

Him too, and plenty of other A-listers whose voices will grace the music and whose faces will appear in a video, directed by Paul Haggis ('Crash,' 'In the Valley of Elah'), set to air on NBC during the Fri, Feb. 12 Opening Ceremony of the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Nicole Richie tweeted her excitement. "I was 4 years old in a studio watching my dad record We Are The World, & today I get to do it again," she wrote Monday afternoon.

The elder Richie spent two weeks in 1985 at Michael Jackson's Encino estate penning the track with the King of Pop. Quincy Jones, who also has a famous daughter involved in the remake – Rashida Jones, produced the song along with Grammy-winning producer Michael Omartian.

As of 2009, 20 million copies of "We Are the World" have been sold, making it the best-selling single of all-time.

No Michael Jackson this time. No Kenny Loggins, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan or Paul Simon either.

At least that's the word as of now. Several stand-ins were present at Monday's shoot whose silhouettes will reportedly be replaced by famous counterparts in post-production.

Could it be original supergroup members Bette Middler, Dan Akroyd and Cyndi Lauper getting a 21st century encore?

We think not.

Comments

(47)

Tuesday 02 February

By nickfabulis

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63 million in sales? Why are people still hungry in Africa?
It has been 25 years. Someone PLEASE tell me why most of the money never got there? Did we have to pay each singer and engineer first?

By Linda Strauch

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what a wonderful thing, I can't wait, I was there for the first one, and now to beable to hear the second one, I'm 60 now. I would love to see some of the oldies, like Cyndi lauper, Dan akroyd and bette midler, Join the onl with the new, make it really speical.

By IllbootenGOTTI

I hope Kanye sings the line from this song about being a douche. He's perfect for it.

By BILL

HOW TRUE BUT WHAT HE WILL PROBABLY DO IS GRAB A MICROPHONE AND SAY "HEY LET'S SING BEYONCE'S SONG INSTEAD" LOL SO SAD THAT HE IS EVEN CONSIDERED A STAR AS SOME OF THE "AMERICAN IDOL" REJECTS SOUND BETTER THAN HE DOES..... NOT SURE HOW HE GOT WHERE HE IS. WHO DID HE PAY-OFF?

By flat top

Isn't all this Kanye hate getting old? Taylor Swift really isn't all that in voice or looks - she just happened to be a sweet blue-eyed blonde who was threatened by the big bad wolf.

By Cissy

How about "We Are the United States"?? I'm tired of seeing us helping everyone else but our own.

By Lori

My thoughts exactly !!!!!

By Dan

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Very true! USA! USA! USA!

By Tam

Amen to that!

By Poppa Pump

Just like the first one and the live aids, the majority of this money will be intercepeted by corrupt local officals before it gets to the ones who need it.

Wednesday 17 February

By jocasseejo

Hey Ya'll - ok the song is inspirational & all, but I'm so sick of hearing about all the celebrities showing up whenever there is some sort of major disaster - as if ONLY because of them will the "little" people give. I dare ANYONE to say that the American people are not THE MOST generous people in the world!! And then to add insult to injury, I read about some J. Anniston/B. Pitt meet-up backstage at the Clooney Haiti telethon around the LAVISH & LUXURIOUS buffet set up for all the "STARS" (I guess so all the skinnies could have some special organically grown mineral & vitamin infused carrots to nibble on). I say shut your pieholes - give out of your own vast resources - give the food from the buffet to the hungry people instead of to these self-absorbed narcissistic self-promoters. It seems to me that celebrities are like spoiled children that ALWAYS Have to have ALL attention focused on themselves. Get over yourselves & just donate like the rest of the people.

By PN

I can understand Quincy Jones' decisions of not having anyone from 1985 performing on the new song. Those artists of '85 (Cyndi,Tina, Huey Lewis and others) fit for that music era amd that song and some of them don't perform or record as much now or have retired from the music business. This is a different era with the pop, R&B and hip-hop acts on the new song and music listeners playing Ipods, downloading personal favorite songs and not sitting through hearing a full album. I like that he went for today's artists on this song and many of them fondly remember the original one.

By my98xlclassic

Every single performer will get paid.

By Sally

Pay attention to the news please. ALL singers are DONATING their time. Not a single one is getting paid.

By WillowRose

I agree with Cissy. Take care of our country before we take care of someone else. There's enough going on with unemployment, big bailouts, a poor health care system and people who still go hungry. Let us help ourselves for a change.

By Bonbon

You can't replicate the original and alot of the younger people are terrible singers....and Kanye West....whose brilliant idea was that....alot of people will not purchase the song now, I for one.

By Eve

I agree. Those were the days when people could actually sing. Might I add, Michael looked mighty fine.

By Marsha

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Wow I would say you are no better than Kanye and definitely more of a douchebag by letting the stupid actions of one guy stop you from contributing to numerous helpless women, men and children in thier dire time of need. Way to go! Your parents must be so proud.

Wednesday 03 February

By Denise

I think this is a wonderful idea, to allow the artists of this generation to share their musical talents that is currently favorable. Cissy to a certain extent I agree with you, we should concentrate on assisting the needs in the US. May I ask what happened again in Hurricane Katrina?

By Christopher Hancock

Regardless of any controversy about the origianal, or the remake, the original "We Are The World" was the greatest musical event of our lifetime. Thanks "Q".

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