The new Netflix documentary The Greatest Night in Pop revisits the historic performance of We Are The World in 1985, a performance that brought together 46 of the biggest stars in pop music at the time. Among those was Lionel Richie, who said as unprecedented as the gathering was, and considered still is, the longtime pop star says doing so again in the modern music scene is “impossible.”
Richie was on hand at the Sundance Film Festival to discuss the new documentary, provide additional insight into his involvement in the film, and speak further about that historic night in 1985. During the panel, he was asked about the likelihood of such an event happening again in the modern pop music scene and he was fairly blunt with his answer, according to Deadline.
“I can tell you honestly, I don’t know how we did it,” Richie said. “Because the perspective is, it was impossible to do. It’s impossible. I keep thinking, today could we pull that off and the answer is absolutely not.”
We Are The World was the brainchild of singer and activist Harry Belafonte, who was inspired by the release of 1984's Do The Know It's Christmas? by the charity supergroup Band Aid, which was comprised of the U.K.'s biggest music acts including U2, David Bowie, Genesis, Duran Duran, and Wham!, to name a few. The Christmas song was meant to draw attention to and raise funds for the famine that gripped Ethiopia from 1983 to 1985.
Belafonte began contacting many of the biggest acts in American music to join USA for Africa, which would serve as Band Aid's U.S. counterpart. Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson would be brought in to write We Are The World, while Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian would produce. The groups final lineup would also include names such as Tina Turner, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, Diana Ross, Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder.
The seemingly impossible gathering was a success, and one Richie does not believe can ever be repeated. His stance isn't unfounded, either, due in part to the tabloid-like coverage of the modern music industry and professional or personal issues between artists that is only exacerbated thanks to social media.
The Greatest Night in Pop is scheduled to premiere on Netflix on January 29, 2024.
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