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We Are The World - Who blocked Madonna from singing on the charity single?


theglamorous
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Well, Madonna did rob one of Michael Jackson's two managers at the time (Freddy Demann) who had left him the previous year and moved to her camp, so there may have been some bad blood on the managerial front rather than the artist side of things. We won in the end though, so whatever happened (maybe nothing), she was better off not being involved on the musical front. She has given far more of herself to Africa in recent years than any of the artists involved in that song.

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ALSO

It is interesting to consider that she was managed by DeMann and that MJ agreed to exclude her. I do believe there was bad blood between DeMann and MJ.

I also wonder if she had already hired Pat by then because he had recently worked as musical director with The Jacksons on tour. And he was disinterested in working with Madonna when he first got the call for the same kind of reasons.

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On 12/24/2022 at 8:20 AM, Levon said:

It was said at the time that Michael Jackson hated Madonna and Prince, but since USA for Africa was his project, among others, they were ignored for the single. Of course, this was noticeable because both were at the (first) peak of their careers - and the biggest pop acts were invited to this charity event.

Madonna was at Live Aid shortly after, but Michael Jackson declined to be there. Prince didn't show up either, but contributed a song (as for the USA for Africa album) and Madonna wore a Prince designed suit.

Prince wasn’t ignored. He was invited to take part by multiple people involved, he just had no interest to do it as he hated the song. That’s why he contributed a song to the album instead. 

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What happened with Prince was while they were all recording that track he went out in LA and a brawl between paparazzis and one of his bodyguard erupted, the press made a big deal about it saying while others were doing charity work he was making a fuss. 

He recalled it all in the Raspberry Beret  b-side "Hello"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOmOUpVvSwY

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-01-30-ca-5763-story.html

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5 hours ago, deathproof said:

Prince wasn’t ignored. He was invited to take part by multiple people involved, he just had no interest to do it as he hated the song.

For Prince, this reasoning would be understood. But why was Madonna ignored, whose star outshone many of those involved at that time?

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16 minutes ago, Levon said:

For Prince, this reasoning would be understood. But why was Madonna ignored, whose star outshone many of those involved at that time?

It's been posted and discussed.  The song was recorded in January 1985 when Madonna was just becoming very popular with "Like A Virgin".  Plans were made before LAV went #1.  Everyone involved have had long established recording careers.  So no, she hadn't outshone some of the most biggest icons included like Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Ritchie,  Bruce Springsteen, Harry Belafonte, Smokey Robinson, Paul Simon, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Ray Charles, Hall and Oates, Bruce Springsteen,  Billy Joel, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan,  Kenny Loggins, Kim Carnes, Huey Lewis,  Pointer Sisters, and the list goes on.  She may have surpassed some after the fact, but all involved have had huge successful careers, some for decades already.  I don't believe she was ignored, but rather not thought to be included at the time. 

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37 minutes ago, androiduser said:

because at that time she wasn't outshining most of them yet, she had a few singles out by that time

At the time, she was one of the hottest US stars around. She already had four top ten hits, and it didn't make sense for her to be left out of the project, especially since she was more successful chart-wise at the time than the likes of Sheila, E., Bette Milder, La Toya, Dionne Warwick, Bob Geldof, Kenny Loggins, Al Jarreau, Jeffrey Osborne or Kim Carnes.

But @tscott might be right: She probably became a star too fast/unexpectedly at that time, which was also shown by the fact that Crazy For You unexpectedly ousted We Are the World from #1.

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1 hour ago, Levon said:

At the time, she was one of the hottest US stars around. She already had four top ten hits, and it didn't make sense for her to be left out of the project, especially since she was more successful chart-wise at the time than the likes of Sheila, E., Bette Milder, La Toya, Dionne Warwick, Bob Geldof, Kenny Loggins, Al Jarreau, Jeffrey Osborne or Kim Carnes.

But @tscott might be right: She probably became a star too fast/unexpectedly at that time, which was also shown by the fact that Crazy For You unexpectedly ousted We Are the World from #1.

On the contrary, all those people you mentioned (aside to La Toya) had either established a career for at least a decade before, if not worked with some of the biggest known acts throughout the 70's.  Bette Midler had already been in the business for more than a decade, had two #1 hits,  several top 10, but mostly famous for the song and movie, The Rose which was in 1979.  Sheila E worked and was a hugely established percussionist with some of the most popular artists, such as Diana Ross, Herbie Hancock, Lionel Richie, and Marvin Gaye. Dionne Warwick had been in the business since the 60's and had a number #1's, top ten songs and albums since the early 60's.  Bob Geldof also had been in the business for years, mostly famous for his work with Pink Floyd, but obviously pulled in because of his work on  the "Do You Know It's Christmas" charity single that was out months prior in 1984.  Kenny Loggins had hit songs and albums for nearly a decade.  Kim Carnes was in the business for more than a decade and had her biggest hit three years prior.  Pretty much everyone on the song, were established acts if not had worked with well established acts that were part of the song  Latoya is the only one who really didn't much have much of a musical career at that point, but come on, she's the sister of  Michael Jackson one of the writers of the song.  She and her brothers were definitely present to help out. So see, Madonna was yet to make a very big impact.  She certainly was making some noise, but nothing to the capacity (yet) of any of the acts included on that song. Again, I don't believe she was ignored; I just think she wasn't really thought of to be included at the time.

Edited by tscott (see edit history)
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8 hours ago, theglamorous said:

How many hits had Dan Akroyd had when they recorded this, my memory might be fading but I don't really remember him even being a singer lol

I don't think it has to do with "how many hits", but rather he was part of the infamous Blues Brothers with James Belushi which did produced several top 40 hits and was a big deal in the early 80's.  He was quite popular as an actor and was among some extremely popular films at the time, "We Are The World" was recorded.  Ghostbusters was the big box office smash at the time, and he and Bette Midler were the two Hosts for the very first VMA's months before. 

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It always caused me surprise and disappointment not to see Madonna in this video that supposedly brought together the best of American music and it's not so much because of the song that I certainly don't like at all because it's repetitive and soporific but because of what it would have represented for Madonna's career. I remember the first day I saw the video and how I tried to identify her without success among so many strangers (I'm not from the USA, that's why I don't know most of them). I remember instantly recognizing Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Bruce Springteen, Snoop Doog and even Cindy Lauper (?) but not a trace of Madonna. Where is Madonna? And my question remained unanswered.

Until today, thanks to this topic, I learn many things, very bitter indeed. I definitely think it was the envy of seeing an unknown young woman rise to stardom so fast and the sixth sense that let them know that they were witnessing the birth of a mega star that would eventually end up overshadowing all of them the reasons why they did not invite her to participate in that song. If the decision was unanimous or made by a single person, one day it will be known, but I love seeing how fate finally played in Madonna's favor because not only did she manage to displace their famous song from the charts with Crazy for you, but she would end up being much more famous than all of them. As they say, he who laughs last laughs best.

2393498600000578-0-image-13_1417195295809.jpg.88b6d066f9937181e8607b7443760e1a.jpg

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