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


theglamorous
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10 hours ago, lap said:

Well, for those who said Madonna wasn't interested to be a part of a charity song, I think they didn't watch what Nile said about that. 

It's interesting that he'd even have a response to a question about the situation if (as a few members on here seem convinced) it was never even a thing. My take for what it's worth is that back then several established artists felt threatened by the sudden explosion in popularity for an artist who dared to do things differently and a woman who wasn't apologetic about using sex to sell her music. She was provocative in a way they couldn't compete. I mean how difficult would it be to add another singer into the lineup? lol

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1 hour ago, theglamorous said:

It's interesting that he'd even have a response to a question about the situation if (as a few members on here seem convinced) it was never even a thing. My take for what it's worth is that back then several established artists felt threatened by the sudden explosion in popularity for an artist who dared to do things differently and a woman who wasn't apologetic about using sex to sell her music. She was provocative in a way they couldn't compete. I mean how difficult would it be to add another singer into the lineup? lol

Don't take it personally, but why did you open a topic about it when you are not willing to accept other's opinion on the subject? 

Nile may have said "they thought she couldn't sing" but then again ,wasn't this common sense about her at that time? There's literally footage of singers doing several takes on the song because they were out of key. It is not like they were all brilliant singers. 

We can't know for sure. Michael Jackson is dead,  Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian never said anything about it and Lionel Ritchie seems to have a good relationship with Madonna.

  :Madonna005:

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11 hours ago, diegolcl said:

Don't take it personally, but why did you open a topic about it when you are not willing to accept other's opinion on the subject? 

Nile may have said "they thought she couldn't sing" but then again ,wasn't this common sense about her at that time? There's literally footage of singers doing several takes on the song because they were out of key. It is not like they were all brilliant singers. 

We can't know for sure. Michael Jackson is dead,  Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian never said anything about it and Lionel Ritchie seems to have a good relationship with Madonna.

  :Madonna005:

Nile Rogers confirmed that’s the reason. We know for sure.

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29 minutes ago, Nahual said:

I don't think it was MJ. MJ didn't like Prince either yet Prince was still invited to appear on the song but didn't out of his own volition. So if MJ didn't veto Prince's participation, I doubt he would've vetoed Madonna's inclusion on the song either.

It was his largely his project though so he would have had a lot of say, probably the most say on who participated. I think we have to consider that in 1984/1985 a woman rolling on the floor on tv with her dress up singing the word “virgin” was very controversial. And the song was a charity single. Perhaps it was felt that her image might distract from the cause also? Or just not be appropriate? Yes Prince was invited but let’s not forget how sexist people’s outlooks were too.

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It is 38 years ago.... not sure I understand why this is still an interesting discussion? Back in the days I of course would have loved Madonna in the song... but looking back she lost nothing for not being a part of it... in early 1985... she had so much going for her that "We are the world" really was not needed for her.

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On 12/24/2022 at 4:01 PM, Musica said:

She's never been known to have a charitable spirit.

She's been writing checks for 35 or 40 years to fight against AIDS and to help people with it.

She funded hospitals in Malawi and funds a charity organization called Raising Malawi.

So maybe you believe in the narrative that she doesn't have the spirit, but she does take action, and it has been reported that she has been giving a lot of money to different charities for a long time, without publicity.

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On 12/29/2022 at 8:36 PM, diegolcl said:

We can't know for sure. Michael Jackson is dead,  Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian never said anything about it and Lionel Ritchie seems to have a good relationship with Madonna.

  :Madonna005:

Lionel Ritchie simply lied about it by saying it's difficult to contact other artists blah blah blah but the fact is Niles said they didn't ask her at all even though they were at the same award show before the recording night.

 

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  • 1 year later...

https://nypost.com/2024/02/18/entertainment/lionel-richie-regrets-not-having-this-music-legend-in-we-are-the-world-lineup/

“You guys talk about Cyndi Lauper and Madonna,” Kimmel, 56, said referring to Richie’s new Netflix documentary “The Greatest Night In Pop,” which tells the story of the song’s creation.

“We know Cyndi Lauper was in this thing,” Kimmel continues. “Was it like who should we invite Cyndi Lauper or Madonna?”

“Why did it have to be Cyndi Lauper or Madonna,” Kimmel continued to press.

“It’s probably one of the is probably one of the most interesting questions in the world,” Richie, 74, responded. “Because we had only half a line to sing.”

“Let me say this now by half a line,” Richie reiterated. “So we had to have voices that people knew right away.”

“And so for whatever reason, and by the way, we didn’t know whether Cyndi was coming,” added Richie.

According to the pop star, he approached Lauper, 70, who said she was still unsure about her attendance as her boyfriend said that he “doesn’t think it’s a hit.”

“And I said, ‘don’t miss the session,'” Richie told Kimmel who pointed out that “he gave a good advice.”

Richie recalled the “Time After Time” songstress later “showed up and killed it.”

“But the point was, you have to have an identifiable voice,” he said. “And whatever reason it was just Cyndi had that sound.”

“But you couldn’t have both of them,” Kimmel queried before adding “You guys made a mistake.”

The late-night host’s comment took the “American Idol” judge by surprise and Richie was forced to admit that Kimmel did have a point.

“You know I’m gonna I’m gonna say this now on national and international television. You’re right, you’re right,” Richie admits.

“We made a mistake."

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The song is dog shit Jackson and Richie at their most insipid. Cindy was only interested because she'd heard the British Feed The World and thought it was a killer song with real emotional content. When she heard We Are The World she thought it was naff. It's also a case of misogyny really. There were lots of raspy male voices but with Cindy and Madonna it was one of the other. Madonna had a great rock voice too not just pop. But Im glad she missed it tbh.

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I paraphrase, but the Netflix documentary stipulates that the A+R people behind it all were split…one of them wanted Madonna, and the other wanted Cyndi and thought she had more staying power. That’s all there is to it, and going back to January 1985 it isn’t that much of a stretch to see why. Nobody knew Madonna would be around forty years later nor that she would become the type of cultural juggernaut she did. She was hot at that moment because Like A Virgin had been number one, but prior to that she hadn’t had massive commercial success. Cyndi Lauper was huge with She’s So Unusual. It’s ridiculous not to be able to see the logic behind the choice. Hindsight is always 20/20. 

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