“We Are the World,” the 1985 all-star charity single credited to USA for Africa — co-written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and featuring Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rodgers, Daryl Hall & John Oates, Kenny Loggins, Dionne Warwick, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, Ray Charles, and more — is the subject of a new documentary. The Greatest Night in Pop will premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival on January 19 and will stream on Netflix starting January 29. The film was directed by our old friend and BV photographer Bao Nguyen, and here’s the synopsis:
On January 25, 1985, dozens of the biggest names in music convened at a studio in Los Angeles, checked their egos at the door and recorded a song to benefit African famine relief that would alter global pop culture history. The Greatest Night in Pop chronicles the massive undertaking to assemble the world’s most impressive supergroup in a world before cell phones and email. That group of artists — led by the song’s co-writers and two of the most significant musicians of the 20th century — Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie — came from different worlds but united to record “We Are the World.” Featuring never-before-seen footage, the film details the early planning stages, including the writing sessions with Richie and Jackson, and goes inside the famed Henson Studios where “We Are the World” was recorded. Many of the artists who were there that legendary evening — Richie, Bruce Springsteen, Smokey Robinson, Cyndi Lauper, Kenny Loggins, Dionne Warwick, and Huey Lewis — reminisce alongside musicians, engineers, and production crew about one of the most storied nights in music history. The Greatest Night in Pop was directed by Bao Nguyen and produced by Julia Nottingham, the team behind the acclaimed Bruce Lee documentary (Be Water).
Netflix hasn’t released a trailer for The Greatest Night in Pop yet but you can watch the video for “We Are the World” below.
