Lionel Richie Describes 'We Are The World' Recording As 'The Greatest Night In Pop Music'

In 1985, the late visionary Harry Belafonte pooled some of the era's best-known musicians for one song for the charity single "We Are The World."

Lionel Richie, one of the many stars who participated in the song, fondly looks back on that moment today, as he was being interviewed at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

Lionel Richie Recalls 'We Are The World' Recording Session

The "We Are The World" single is the fastest-selling U.S. pop single in history when it was released in 1985. It received four Grammy Awards, one American Music Award, and a People's Choice Award at the time, among many accolades.

Variety reports that director Bao Nguyen and producer Julia Nottingham aimed to capture that moment in the new Netflix documentary, The Greatest Night in Pop," chronicling how the pop record came to be.

In an interview, Lionel Richie remembers the feeling he had at the time while recording it.

"Every segment of this journey, I cry," he said. "It just brings tears to my eyes because some of us are not here anymore. Also it was our innocence. We actually were making a difference, so to see the naive version of ourselves, when we actually had an aha moment that we might take all this celebrity and change the world ... I'm just emotional about it because I get to watch my kid being born again."

'We Are The World' Recording: 'The Greatest Night In Pop'

Among the list of musicians involved at the time were Richie, Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Kenny Rogers, James Ingram, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Willy Nelson, Al Jarreau, Ray Charles, Kim Carnes, Bob Dylan, Huey Lewis, Daryl Hall, Steve Perry, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Tina Turner, and Michael Jackson.

According to Richie, recalling that moment was "bittersweet" because "Michael's not here."

"There should be another guy sitting here going, 'Lionel, what do you think we're going to do?'" he added. "I need him here to tell you the funny parts about it because, in all of this, we were just two creatives having the best time of our lives pulling from the universe."

The new documentary by Netflix reportedly includes new material including interviews from Richie, Lauper, Loggings, Robinson, Springsteen, Warwick, and even never-before-seen recordings of Richie and Jackson while writing the iconic song.

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Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie