"We Are the World" is a charity single recorded by the supergroup USA for Africa in 1985. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, produced by Quincy Jones for the album We Are the World to raise money for the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. With sales in excess of 20 million physical copies, it is the eighth-best-selling single of all time.
After the British group Band Aid released the charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in 1984, the musician and activist Harry Belafonte decided to create an American single for African famine relief. The agent Ken Kragen enlisted several musicians for the project. Jackson and Richie completed the writing the night before the first recording session on January 28, 1985. The recording brought together some of the era's best-known recording artists, including Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, and Tina Turner.
"We Are the World" was released on March 7, 1985, by Columbia Records. It topped music charts throughout the world, became the fastest-selling US pop single in history and the first single to be certified multi-platinum, and was certified quadruple platinum. Its awards include four Grammy Awards, one American Music Award, and a People's Choice Award.
"We Are the World" was promoted with a music video, a VHS, a special edition magazine, a simulcast, and books, posters and shirts. It raised more than $80 million (equivalent to $235 million in 2025) for humanitarian aid in Africa and the United States. Another cast of singers recorded a new version, "We Are the World 25 for Haiti", following the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
In 1985, inspired by Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in the UK, the American entertainer and activist Harry Belafonte decided to organize a US equivalent. He planned to have the proceeds donated to a new organization, United Support of Artists for Africa (USA for Africa). The organization would provide food and relief aid for the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia, which killed about one million people. Belafonte also planned to set aside money to help eliminate hunger in the US.
Belafonte contacted the entertainment manager and fundraiser Ken Kragen, who enlisted his clients Lionel Richie and Kenny Rogers. In turn, they enlisted Stevie Wonder to add more "name value". Quincy Jones was drafted to co-produce, taking time out from his work on the film The Color Purple. Jones also telephoned Michael Jackson, who had just concluded Victory Tour with the Jacksons.
Jackson told Richie that he wanted to help write the song. The songwriting team originally included Wonder, but his time was constrained by his songwriting for the film The Woman in Red. Jackson and Richie wrote "We Are the World" at Hayvenhurst, the Jackson family home in Encino, California. They sought to write a song that would be easy to sing, memorable and anthemic. For a week, they spent every night working on lyrics and melodies in Jackson's bedroom. Jackson's older sister La Toya recounted: "I'd go into the room while they were writing and it would be very quiet, which is odd, since Michael's usually very cheery when he works. It was very emotional for them." She said later that Jackson wrote most of the lyrics.
Richie recorded two melodies, to which Jackson added music on the same day. Jackson said, "I love working quickly. I went ahead without even Lionel knowing. I couldn't wait. I went in and came out the same night with the song completed: drums, piano, strings, and words to the chorus." Jackson presented his demo to Richie and Jones, who were both surprised that he had completed the structure so quickly. The next meetings between Jackson and Richie were unproductive. On January 21, 1985, the night before the first recording session, Richie and Jackson completed the lyrics and melody.
Recording began on January 22, 1985, at Kenny Rogers' Lion Share Recording Studio on Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles. The first day included Richie, Jackson, Wonder, and Jones, along with the session musicians Jones had hired to lay down the backing tracks: John "JR" Robinson on drums, Louis Johnson on bass, and Greg Phillinganes on piano. The three had first played together on Jackson's 1979 single "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough", produced by Jones. Despite tight security, the studio was filled with the musicians, technicians, video crews, retinue, assistants, and organizers.
Richie sat at the piano to teach everyone the song. When it was time to record, Robinson cleared the room of non-musicians. The session musicians recorded the backing tracks, then Richie and Jackson recorded a vocal guide. Jones selected the sixth take of the guide—he felt there was too much "thought" in the previous versions—and had it mixed with the instrumental tracks. A cassette tape duplicate was made for each of the performers invited to the vocal recording sessions.
After the initial recording, Jackson and Jones began thinking of alternatives for the line "There's a chance we're taking, we're taking our own lives". The pair was concerned that line would be considered a reference to suicide. As the group listened to a playback of the chorus, Richie declared that the last part of the line should be changed to "We're 'saving' our own lives". Jones also suggested altering the former part of the line. "One thing we don't want to do, especially with this group, is look like we're patting ourselves on the back. So it's really: 'There's a choice we're making.'" Around 1:30 am, the musicians ended the night by finishing a chorus of melodic vocalizations, including the sound "sha-lum sha-lin-gay". Jones told the group that they were not to add anything else to the tape, and said: "If we get too good, someone's gonna start playing it on the radio."
On January 24, 1985, after a day of rest, Jones shipped Richie and Jackson's vocal guide to all the artists who would be involved the recording. Enclosed in the package was a letter from Jones imploring the artists not to share the tape or make copies. He wrote: "In the years to come, when your children ask, 'What did mommy and daddy do for the war against world famine?', you can say proudly, this was your contribution."
Kragen chaired a production meeting at a bungalow off Sunset Boulevard on January 25, 1985. His team discussed where the recording sessions should take place. Kragen was concerned that a leak of the location would trigger a paparazzi frenzy and drive the celebrities away. Jones was concerned about assigning performers to sing solos, saying that so much talent on hand made the task like "putting a watermelon in a Coke bottle". The following evening, Richie held a choreography session at his home, where it was decided who would stand where.
The final night of recording was held on January 28, 1985, at A&M Recording Studios in Hollywood. Jackson arrived at 8 p.m., earlier than the others, to record his solo section and record a vocal chorus alone. He was joined by the remaining artists, who included Ray Charles, Billy Joel, Diana Ross, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen and Tina Turner, and Jackson's siblings Jackie, La Toya, Marlon, Randy and Tito. Many of the participants came from an American Music Awards ceremony held that night.
Prince, who would have had a part in which he and Michael Jackson sang to each other, did not attend. One newspaper said that Prince did not want to record with other acts; another report, from the time of the recording, suggested that he did not want to partake because the organizer, Bob Geldof, called him a "creep". During the session, Richie spoke with Prince on the phone, and declined Prince's offer to play a guitar solo in a separate room. Instead, Prince donated an exclusive track, "4 the Tears in Your Eyes", to the We Are the World album.
Wonder asked Eddie Murphy to participate, but Murphy declined because he was busy recording his single "Party All the Time". Murphy later said he "felt like an idiot" for not participating. John Denver asked to participate, but was refused despite his previous commitment to charity work. According to Kragen, some felt that Denver's image would affect the credibility of the song as a pop-rock anthem; Kragen disagreed, but reluctantly turned him down. In his 1994 autobiography Take Me Home, Denver wrote that the rejection "broke my heart".