On the night of January 28, 1985, 45 singers recorded “We Are the World” at A&M Recording Studios in Hollywood, straight after the American Music Awards. Here is every soloist and chorus member, how the session came together, what the record achieved, and why the song still sparks debate across the continent it set out to help.
Last updated: October 29, 2026
The Key Facts
Here is the session and its results in brief, before we go through the full lineup.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Recorded | January 28–29, 1985, overnight |
| Studio | A&M Recording Studios, Hollywood |
| Writers | Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie |
| Producers | Quincy Jones, with Michael Omartian |
| Credited vocalists | 45 (21 soloists, 24 chorus members) |
| Released | March 7, 1985, on Columbia Records |
| B-side | “Grace,” a Quincy Jones instrumental |
| Billboard Hot 100 peak | No. 1, four weeks |
| UK Singles Chart peak | No. 1, two weeks |
| Grammy Awards (1986) | Four, including Record and Song of the Year |
| Commonly cited sales | More than 20 million copies worldwide |
The figure that matters most is the money. The song and its spin-offs raised tens of millions of dollars for famine relief within its first year. The most widely reported total is more than $80 million, counting the single, the album, video sales and merchandise.
Why USA for Africa Happened
The story starts in Ethiopia. Between 1983 and 1985, drought, crop failure and civil war in the north of the country produced one of the worst famines of the century. Hundreds of thousands of people died.
In October 1984, BBC reporter Michael Buerk broadcast footage from a feeding camp, filmed with Kenyan cameraman Mohamed Amin. The pictures shocked British viewers. Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats and Midge Ure of Ultravox answered with “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” by Band Aid, released that December. It became the biggest-selling single in British history up to that point.
Harry Belafonte watched all this from the United States and felt that American artists, Black American artists especially, should be part of the response. He called Ken Kragen, the manager who handled Lionel Richie and Kenny Rogers. Kragen agreed to organize it, and within days he had Richie, Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson involved.
That chain of phone calls is why we have the song. Belafonte supplied the conscience, Kragen the logistics, and Jones the clout that made stars say yes.
Writing the song in a week
Richie and Jackson wrote “We Are the World” over several late nights at the Jackson family home in Encino. Stevie Wonder was originally expected to co-write, but he could not be reached in time, so the job fell to the two of them.
The song is simple by design. It has a hymn-like melody, a slow build and a chorus that a room full of famous voices could sing without rehearsal. Jackson reportedly recorded a guide vocal so the invited artists would know the parts before they arrived. Tapes went out to everyone with instructions from Jones.
Picking the date
The American Music Awards were set for January 28, 1985, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Richie was hosting. Half of the industry would already be in town and dressed up, so Kragen scheduled the session for the same night. Artists could walk off the awards stage and drive to the studio.
The instrumental track had been cut earlier that month. On the night itself, the job was purely vocals.
All the Singers in USA for Africa
The credited lineup has 45 vocalists. Twenty-one of them sang solo lines, and 24 more sang in the chorus. Session musicians, the producers and the engineers made the full team larger still.
The 21 soloists, in order of appearance
This is the order the solo voices come in on the released single. Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, James Ingram, Ray Charles and Bruce Springsteen each come back for a second turn.
| Order | Soloist | Who they were in early 1985 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lionel Richie | Co-writer, AMA host, coming off Can’t Slow Down |
| 2 | Stevie Wonder | Motown legend, fresh from “I Just Called to Say I Love You” |
| 3 | Paul Simon | Singer-songwriter, a year before Graceland |
| 4 | Kenny Rogers | Country-pop star, Kragen client |
| 5 | James Ingram | R&B balladeer and Quincy Jones protégé |
| 6 | Tina Turner | At the peak of her Private Dancer comeback |
| 7 | Billy Joel | Piano man touring An Innocent Man |
| 8 | Michael Jackson | Co-writer, two years after Thriller |
| 9 | Diana Ross | Former Supremes lead, solo superstar |
| 10 | Dionne Warwick | Pop-soul veteran, already active in charity work |
| 11 | Willie Nelson | Outlaw country icon |
| 12 | Al Jarreau | Jazz and pop vocalist |
| 13 | Bruce Springsteen | In the middle of the Born in the U.S.A. tour |
| 14 | Kenny Loggins | Fresh from the “Footloose” soundtrack |
| 15 | Steve Perry | Journey frontman |
| 16 | Daryl Hall | One half of Hall & Oates |
| 17 | Michael Jackson | Second solo pass |
| 18 | Huey Lewis | Huey Lewis and the News frontman |
| 18 | Cyndi Lauper | New pop star after She’s So Unusual |
| 18 | Kim Carnes | “Bette Davis Eyes” singer |
| 19 | Bob Dylan | Folk-rock giant |
| 20 | Ray Charles | Soul pioneer |
| 21 | Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen | Trading lines in the climax |
| 22 | James Ingram | Returning in the closing section |
| 23 | Ray Charles | Ad-libs to the fade |
Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper and Kim Carnes share one line as a trio, which is why they sit together in the running order. Lewis took a part that had originally been intended for Prince.
The casting crossed genres on purpose. Country (Nelson, Rogers), soul (Charles, Wonder, Ross), rock (Springsteen, Dylan, Perry), jazz (Jarreau) and pop (Jackson, Lauper, Joel) all sit side by side. Kragen and Jones wanted a record no single radio format could ignore.
The 24 chorus members
The chorus is where many listeners get confused, because several big names never got a solo. Five of the chorus singers were members of Huey Lewis’s band, and five were Jackson brothers or sisters.
| Chorus member | Note |
|---|---|
| Dan Aykroyd | Comedian and actor, Blues Brothers co-founder |
| Harry Belafonte | The project’s originator |
| Lindsey Buckingham | Fleetwood Mac guitarist and singer |
| Mario Cipollina | The News, bass |
| Johnny Colla | The News, guitar and sax |
| Sheila E. | Percussionist and singer |
| Bob Geldof | Band Aid organizer |
| Bill Gibson | The News, drums |
| Chris Hayes | The News, guitar |
| Sean Hopper | The News, keyboards |
| Jackie Jackson | The Jacksons |
| La Toya Jackson | Michael’s sister |
| Marlon Jackson | The Jacksons |
| Randy Jackson | The Jacksons |
| Tito Jackson | The Jacksons |
| Waylon Jennings | Outlaw country star |
| Bette Midler | Singer and actress |
| John Oates | Hall & Oates |
| Jeffrey Osborne | R&B singer |
| Anita Pointer | The Pointer Sisters |
| June Pointer | The Pointer Sisters |
| Ruth Pointer | The Pointer Sisters |
| Smokey Robinson | Motown singer and songwriter |
That makes 23 rows because the Pointer Sisters take three. Count each sister separately, together with the other chorus singers, and you reach 24. Add the 21 soloists and you get the familiar 45.
Midler, Robinson and Buckingham are the names people are most surprised not to hear up front. With that much star power in one room, Jones simply did not have enough lines to go round.
The musicians and team behind the vocals
The backing track was played by top Los Angeles session players. Greg Phillinganes and Michael Omartian played keyboards, Louis Johnson was on bass, John Robinson on drums, Paulinho da Costa on percussion, and Michael Boddicker handled synthesizer programming. Quincy Jones conducted and produced, Omartian co-produced, and Humberto Gatica engineered the vocal session.
Tom Trbovich directed the music video, which was shot during the session itself. That is why the clip feels like a documentary: it is mostly real footage of the singers working through the night.
Myth
Prince sang on “We Are the World.” He did not. He was in Los Angeles that night but skipped the session, and Huey Lewis sang the line meant for him. Prince’s contribution was a new song, “4 the Tears in Your Eyes,” which appeared on the We Are the World album.
Inside the Session: Moments That Became Legend
Most of what we know about the night comes from interviews given over the decades and from Netflix’s 2024 documentary The Greatest Night in Pop, directed by Bao Nguyen. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2024 and used previously unseen footage from the session. Richie served as its main narrator.
“Check your ego at the door”
Quincy Jones taped a handwritten sign by the studio entrance telling the stars to check their egos at the door. It has become the most quoted detail of the night, and it summed up his approach. Nobody got special treatment, and nobody got a dressing room to sulk in.
Bob Dylan’s struggle
Dylan was visibly uncomfortable with the big ensemble format and struggled to land his solo. Stevie Wonder sat at the piano and sang the line back to him in an impression of Dylan’s own voice, showing him how to phrase it. The documentary footage of that exchange is one of its most loved scenes.
Cyndi Lauper’s jewelry
During her takes, the engineers picked up a rattling noise on the microphone. It turned out to be Lauper’s bracelets and necklaces. She took them off, and the take went through.
Springsteen’s grit
Springsteen arrived straight from the road and sang his line with the rasp of a man in the middle of a stadium tour. His voice, set against Wonder’s in the closing section, gives the song much of its punch.
The Swahili moment and Waylon Jennings
This is the episode that matters most to an African music magazine. Stevie Wonder proposed adding a line sung in Swahili. Several people in the room objected, and the point was made that Ethiopians mainly speak Amharic, Tigrinya and Oromo, not Swahili.
Swahili is a real lingua franca across East Africa. It is the language behind so much Kenya music and Tanzanian Bongo Flava. In northern Ethiopia, though, it would have meant little. The idea was dropped.
Accounts of the night, including the documentary, say Waylon Jennings left the studio around this point, with the Swahili debate widely given as the reason. He still appears in the chorus credits. What we cannot say with certainty is exactly which takes he sang on before leaving, and no participant has settled that publicly.
The end of the night
The session ran through the night and wrapped up around 8 a.m. By the end, stars who had been professionals all evening were swapping autographs like fans. Diana Ross is often remembered as one of the first to start passing round her sheet music for signatures.
Listen next
Play Manu Dibango’s 1985 charity effort “Tam Tam pour l’Éthiopie,” recorded in Paris with African musicians, to hear how the continent’s own stars answered the same famine.
Chart Run and Awards
“We Are the World” was released on March 7, 1985, and it moved faster than any American pop single had before it. Retailers reported stock selling out within days. Radio stations around the world played it at the same moment on Good Friday that April, in a coordinated simulcast.
| Chart or award | Result |
|---|---|
| Billboard Hot 100 | No. 1 for four weeks (spring 1985) |
| Billboard Hot Black Singles | No. 1 |
| UK Singles Chart | No. 1 for two weeks (April 1985) |
| Grammy: Record of the Year (1986) | Won |
| Grammy: Song of the Year (1986) | Won (Jackson and Richie) |
| Grammy: Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal (1986) | Won |
| Grammy: Best Music Video, Short Form (1986) | Won |
It also topped charts in Canada, Australia and much of Europe. The commonly cited worldwide sales figure is more than 20 million copies, which puts it among the best-selling singles ever released.
The album
A full-length We Are the World album followed in 1985. Alongside the title track, it gathered previously unreleased songs donated by artists including Prince, Bruce Springsteen (a live recording of “Trapped”), Tina Turner, Steve Perry, the Pointer Sisters and Huey Lewis and the News. It also included “Tears Are Not Enough” by Northern Lights, Canada’s own all-star famine single.
What “We Are the World” Achieved
The money went into the USA for Africa foundation, set up to manage the funds. The announced plan was to send the large majority, roughly 90 percent, to relief and development in Africa, mainly Ethiopia and neighbouring countries hit by the famine. The remaining share was to go to hunger and homelessness programs in the United States.
That split sometimes surprises people today. It reflected Belafonte’s and Kragen’s view that an American charity record should also address American poverty.
Live Aid and Hands Across America
On July 13, 1985, Live Aid took place in London and Philadelphia. The Philadelphia show at JFK Stadium closed with a mass performance of “We Are the World,” led by Lionel Richie. The two charity singles, British and American, became linked in public memory through that day.
In May 1986, the foundation organized Hands Across America, a human chain stretching across the United States to raise money for domestic hunger. It drew millions of participants. It also showed how far the brand had travelled from its Ethiopian starting point.
The music industry’s new template
Before Band Aid in late 1984, charity concerts existed, but the all-star charity single was not yet an established format. Band Aid created the format, and “We Are the World” scaled it up to American superstar level. Over the following decades, nearly every major disaster brought calls for a similar record.
The song also proved that genre walls could come down for one track. Seeing Willie Nelson and Ray Charles sing the same verse on Top 40 radio made an impression on younger artists.
The African Critique
We cover African music, so we will say plainly what many in our scenes say: the song’s legacy is mixed.
The money was real and it saved lives. The framing was another matter. The record was made almost entirely by American stars, about a continent that had no voice in the room. The lyrics talk about saving lives and making a brighter day, and the speaker is always the helper, never the person being helped.
Band Aid drew sharper fire. Its question, whether Africans know it is Christmas, landed badly in Ethiopia, a country with one of the oldest Christian churches in the world and its own Christmas, Genna, celebrated in January. “We Are the World” avoided lines like that, which is one reason it has aged better.
Africa’s own answers
African artists did respond in 1985. Cameroonian saxophonist Manu Dibango led “Tam Tam pour l’Éthiopie,” recorded in Paris by musicians from across the continent. It never got the airplay or sales of the American record, but it showed African stars mobilizing for their own continent.
The same year, Steven Van Zandt’s Artists United Against Apartheid released “Sun City,” which pushed for a cultural boycott of South Africa. Several “We Are the World” alumni, Bob Dylan among them, appeared on it. That record was political in a way the famine singles chose not to be.
The debate came back in 2014, when Band Aid 30 was recorded for the Ebola crisis. Ghanaian-British artist Fuse ODG publicly declined to take part, saying such projects reinforced negative images of Africa. His stance captured a shift. Africans increasingly wanted to tell their own stories, on their own terms.
Today that shift is visible on every global chart. African artists lead their own movements, from the rise of afrobeats music out of Lagos to Amapiano in Johannesburg. A 2026 version of “We Are the World” built without them would be unthinkable.
The 2010 Remake: We Are the World 25 for Haiti
After the earthquake that devastated Haiti in January 2010, Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie brought the song back. “We Are the World 25 for Haiti” was recorded on February 1, 2010, at Henson Recording Studios in Hollywood, the same studio complex that had been A&M in 1985.
The new lineup reflected a different era. Justin Bieber, Celine Dion, Lil Wayne, Barbra Streisand, Usher, Jennifer Hudson, Pink and Kanye West were among the singers. will.i.am added a new rap section. Janet Jackson sang alongside archival footage of her late brother Michael, which became the remake’s emotional centre.
Paul Haggis directed the video. The remake raised money for Haitian relief and charted strongly, but critics were cooler on it. The Auto-Tune on Lil Wayne’s verse became a talking point all of its own.
The Voices We Have Lost
Forty years on, a number of the 1985 participants have died. These are the soloists and key figures we know have passed away.
| Name | Role on the record | Died |
|---|---|---|
| Waylon Jennings | Chorus | 2002 |
| Ray Charles | Soloist | 2004 |
| June Pointer | Chorus | 2006 |
| Michael Jackson | Co-writer, soloist | 2009 |
| Al Jarreau | Soloist | 2017 |
| James Ingram | Soloist | 2019 |
| Kenny Rogers | Soloist | 2020 |
| Ken Kragen | Organizer | 2021 |
| Anita Pointer | Chorus | 2022 |
| Harry Belafonte | Originator, chorus | 2023 |
| Tina Turner | Soloist | 2023 |
| Tito Jackson | Chorus | 2024 |
| Quincy Jones | Producer, conductor | 2024 |
Belafonte’s death in April 2023 and Quincy Jones’s in November 2024 each brought fresh tributes to the session. In both cases, the sign on the studio door and the all-night session came up again and again in the coverage.
Why the Song Still Matters
Three things keep “We Are the World” in circulation.
First, it is a perfect snapshot of 1985 American pop at its commercial peak. You will not find a single recording that captures Springsteen, Jackson, Dylan, Turner and Ray Charles in the same few minutes anywhere else.
Second, The Greatest Night in Pop introduced the session to a generation that was not alive when it happened. Streaming numbers for the original jumped after the film arrived on Netflix in January 2024.
Third, the song is the reference point for every argument about celebrity charity. When stars gather for a cause today, the first question journalists ask is whether it will be another “We Are the World.” The second is whether it will repeat that record’s blind spots.
What Happens Next
The USA for Africa name lives on through the foundation’s history and the archive of the session. The recording itself has been reissued and remastered across formats, and the documentary footage has become part of how the song is presented.
The bigger question is who makes the next great charity record, and where. Our position is clear. The next song that matters on this scale should be led by African artists, written in African languages where they fit, and recorded with the communities it is meant to serve. The talent and the global reach already exist in Lagos, Accra, Johannesburg and Nairobi. Organizers of the past assumed Africa needed outsiders to speak for it, and that assumption no longer holds.
Until then, “We Are the World” stands as a remarkable night of music with a complicated legacy. Both of those things are true, and listeners deserve to hear both.
FAQ
How many singers were in USA for Africa?
There are 45 credited vocalists: 21 soloists and 24 chorus members. Counting the session musicians, producers Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian and engineer Humberto Gatica, the team that made the record was larger still.
Who wrote “We Are the World”?
Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie wrote it in January 1985, working at the Jackson family home in Encino. Quincy Jones produced, with Michael Omartian as co-producer.
Who sang first on “We Are the World”?
Lionel Richie opens the song, followed by Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Kenny Rogers, James Ingram and Tina Turner. Ray Charles closes it with ad-libs.
Was Prince part of USA for Africa?
No. Prince did not attend the January 28 session, and Huey Lewis sang the line that had been intended for him. Prince did donate the song “4 the Tears in Your Eyes” to the We Are the World album.
Did Waylon Jennings really walk out?
Accounts of the night, including Netflix’s The Greatest Night in Pop, say Jennings left during the session after Stevie Wonder suggested a Swahili line. He is still credited in the chorus. Exactly how much of the final recording he appears on has never been publicly confirmed.
How much money did “We Are the World” raise?
The most widely reported figure is more than $80 million, from the single, album, video and merchandise. Most of it went to famine relief in Ethiopia and neighbouring countries, with a smaller share for hunger programs in the United States.
Where was “We Are the World” recorded?
At A&M Recording Studios in Hollywood, overnight on January 28–29, 1985. The 2010 Haiti remake was recorded at the same complex, by then operating as Henson Recording Studios.
