In the Netflix documentary Pop’s biggest nightTensions are running high as more than 40 of the greatest musicians of the ’80s, including Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Diana Ross and Cyndi Lauper, are just hours late to record the anthem “We Are the World.”
The tension is so palpable that it was still there decades later when the documentary premiered in January, recalls Lionel Richie, who co-wrote the song with Michael Jackson and served as a producer on the documentary.
“At the premiere, Huey Lewis was sitting next to me and he leaned over to me and said, ‘I don’t think we’re going to make it.’ And I said, ‘Huey, that was 40 years ago. We made it,’” Richie says with a laugh.
The song was recorded in January 1985 by the all-star supergroup, which also included Ray Charles, Kenny Rogers, Tina Turner and Harry Belafonte, the latter of whom proposed the idea of recording a song to raise money for food and humanitarian aid in Ethiopia. The only time slot that suited all of the artists was the one immediately following the American Music Awards, which Richie was hosting, and the musicians began gathering around 10 p.m. at a recording location that was kept secret from the public.
After an initial “chaos,” as Richie puts it, mastered by producer Quincy Jones and Richie himself, the recording was completed and the song became a global hit. The documentary, directed by Bao Nguyen and covering the emotions, nerves and triumphs behind the scenes, also took off.
“We thought we were going to end hunger and save lives, and we got to see it unfold in front of all of us,” Richie says. “And the fact that we got to see those images was just incredible. Just seeing our naivety, our childhood, it’s a part of our lives that’s so honest that it almost sums up what made us all artists in the first place.”
The documentary was nominated for three Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special. Richie, the film’s producer, earned his first Emmy nomination, which he called a great honor, especially since he didn’t expect to be nominated for an Emmy.
Richie spoke with THR about how he became the one telling the story of the night and all the drama that entailed.
What made you want to participate in the documentary?
I was driven by the fact that the story needed to be told once I started realizing that a lot of people were asking me, “Well, Lionel, were you there?” “What do you mean, was I there?” And then you realize that time erases what actually happened. And so when they sat me down in that room and said, “Okay, now tell us the story of We Are the World,” I didn’t realize at the time that I was going to be the narrator. I was just saying, “Okay, let me just give you some pointers.” And what they did was they put it together exactly the way I wanted it to be…
