Fans of music have been stunned by “We are the world” written by Michael Jackson & Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones for the group USA for Africa. This song featured Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Bruce Springsteen, Kenny Rogers, Cyndi Lauper, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles to name a few.
25 years later the co-writer of the song and the producer team up yet again to re-create the magic, to help raise funds for Haiti. Michael Jackson is no more and Quincy Jones is probably a tad too old for today’s consoles, synthesizers and other equipments, I’m kidding, this man can still work his magic on a record.
RedOne, is a producer-songwriter who collaborates writes-produces works for Lionel Richie, Akon, Enrique Iglesias, produces the new version, Paul Haggis shoots the video. This song features a whole range of artists from across the world, almost 75 is what the official website says.
Jamie Foxx, Nicole Scherzinger (Lewis Hamilton’s ex girlfriend, Pussycat dolls), Celine Dion, Barbara Streissand, LL Cool J, Jamie Foxx, Miles Cyrus, Josh Groban, Janet Jackson, Usher, Lionel Richie, Carlos Santana, Michael Jackson, AR Rahman and a lot of other artists.
The new rendition is as good as the old one if not better, I’m glad it didn’t end up like the “Mile sur” experiment conducted in India, that was a disaster. Aishwarya Rai strutting on screen lip syncing to Shreya Ghosal’s voice is unacceptable, by any weird suspension of disbelief logic. Rahman on the continuum fingerboard was lovely and so were many of the real musicians featured in the video.
Coming back to world25, to compare how long an artist features in a collaborative track is debatable. However Nicole Scherzinger getting the most frames in this song is a little too boring. She’s pretty but is she the best vocalist? Hardly. Jamie Foxx however does a nice Ray Charles gig towards the end of the song.
Apart from the rap towards the end there isn’t anything new done to the music. AR Rahman is relegated to the choir, no solo act and even in the choir he’s lost despite being on the front row. I personally feel AR Rahman should have produced the track as a whole or co-produced.
I believe AR Rahman could have added that extra bit or charm and clever interludes or orchestrations if he was enlisted to join the production crew, paucity of time could be the reason. Doesn’t bode well for Rahmaniacs like me. I liked the inclusion of Michael Jackson’s footage and Janet Jackson singing a duet with him.
If you wants to show some concern for the tragedy in Haiti and contribute towards the relief effort do buy this song from iTunes, don’t download it for free. If some of us can stand up for celebrity no-brainer causes like MNIK we certainly should do our bit for worthy causes like this.
