"Leave the ego at the door."
It was the motto of the producer Quincy Jones, also written outside the studio door, which allowed the 'USA for Africa' dream team, made up of 46 overseas music stars (and beyond), to reunite on 25 January 1985 and recorded in one night, in the A&M Studios in Los Angeles, We Are The World, the song created for charity which raised over 80 million dollars to fight hunger in Africa and in particular in Ethiopia at the time in the midst of a serious famine.
A unique night for a supergroup, led by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson (also co-authors of the song), together with, among others, Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Ray Charles, Diana Ross, Billy Joel, Cyndi Lauper, Harry Belafonte, Dionne Warwick, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, Bette Midler, Steve Perry, Kenny Rogers, which is now told behind the scenes, never seen footage and testimonies from We Are The World: the night that changed pop, the documentary by Bao Nguyen debuting at the Sundance Film Festival, and then arriving globally on Netflix from January 29th.
A journey traced, in the non-fiction film, mainly by Lionel Richie (here also co-producer), who had activated for USA for Africa after a phone call from Harry Belafonte, intending to launch a project similar to the one created in Great Britain through Band Aid and the song Do They Know It's Christmas released just over a month earlier.
"The greatest artists of a generation came together to save lives but we only had one night to do it right" explains Richie in the documentary, who after having tried with Stevie Wonder, proposed to write the song together with Michael Jackson who he knew, thanks to our time together in Motown as a child.
Also remembering what happened in that recording session in the interviews are Bruce Springsteen, Dionne Warwick, Cyndi Lauper, Huey Lewis, Kenny Loggins, Sheila E. and Smokey Robinson, among others.
"With our film we try to immerse the audience in something that is very present, the ticking of the clock in that room - explains Bao Nguyen, former author of the documentary on Bruce Lee, Be Water - in the production notes -. Everyone was under the 'adrenaline effect'.
With the film "we want to have an audience completely immersed in that night" but also reflect "on the impact that song and that event had".
Memories that come to life also thanks to the work done by the director behind the scenes, videos left without sound, to which he was able to restore sound thanks to the recordings made in those hours by David Breskin, a Time journalist in charge of following the whole process from the early stages. the initiative.
Thus we find the icons of music amidst chatter, expectations but also moments of nervousness and anxiety.
From Bob Dylan,
uncertain how to perform his verse, which is helped by Stevie Wonder (complete with imitation of his way of singing) to Diana Ross who asks Daryl Hall for his autograph on his score.
From Ray Charles' enthusiasm to Huey Lewis' fears in being entrusted with the part imagined for Prince, who said no, even though her friend Sheila E was there, convinced today that she was invited only to try to have the Minneapolis rocker there too .
All with Richie and Jackson working on verses, relationships and harmonizations all night long.
“The release of that song was a global cultural event,” observes co-producer Julia Nottingham. “It was such a difficult thing to do, and strangely enough watching our film, these people made it seem almost easy. In a period of three weeks two songwriting geniuses got together for a couple of days, and then some brilliant logistics experts knew how to bring 46 artists together in that room where there was real magic."
And "according to Lionel, in that room there was also a lot of hope on the part of everyone (for the world, ed.) that it would be difficult to find again now".
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