18 thoughts on “Why Wasn’t Madonna Included In ‘We Are the World’?

  1. and take not, Madonna’s Crazy For you kicked We Are the World in the #1 position in the US charts…..it’s Madonna against the institution

  2. Foi muito ruim o que fizeram, mas Madonna dei-lhe uma bica em We are the world nas paradas. Aliás essa música é bem chatinha…

  3. Didn’t they do like a kind of heavy metal version of this? It was a completely different song but I have memories of the hair bands doing something similar and all the guitar players trying to outdo eachother with their flashy stunt guitar solos.

    I would bet whatever the metal bands were up to recording that song has way more interesting stories than the artists that recorded We are the World. Just the stories from one of these bands are crazy, couldn’t imagine what we t down when they were all together in the studio trying to out party each other.

  4. A recent Netflix documentary revealed that they were considering Cindi Lauper or Madonna. But chose to use C Lauper. So Madonna was considered.

  5. Harriet Sternberg, head of creative services at Kragen & Co., felt strongly about bringing Madonna into the fold — but Ken Kragen had another idea.

    “I wanted Madonna. ‘Material Girl’ and all of the things she did would bring a really different audience, but Ken wanted Cyndi [Lauper],” she says in the doc. “We had a fight about that.”

    They eventually did go with Lauper, but nearly lost her the night of recording, with Richie saying that she approached him backstage at the American Music Awards to say her boyfriend had heard the song and didn’t think it would be a hit, so she was out.

    “Well, nobody knew. It certainly was a group of great people. But I was so punch-drunk tired. And after the show it was like, ‘Alright, you have to just go there,’” Lauper says in the doc. “[But] I felt it was an important thing to do. I do believe that rock and roll can save the world, or we should try.”

  6. I heard she WAS supposed to sing, “We Are the World,” but she showed up 3 and 1/2 hours late and they didn’t let her in!

  7. We are talking about the same Madonna who snubbed Tom Kelly (the man who cowrote “Like a Virgin”) when she met him at a party? That Madonna? Yeah, screw her.

  8. I don’t particularly care about Madonna’s feelings, either, it’s just a question of whether, if you’re including the biggest music stars of January 1985, you include Madonna or not, and I think the answer is a pretty clear “yes,” and yet they didn’t.

  9. why couldn’t they have invited both Cyndi Lauper and Madonna? They could’ve done without the likes of Latoya Jackson

  10. Agreed, it’s silly to not just invite them both. As for LaToya, well, I mean, her brother was a key part of the production, so I think his siblings being there made sense.

  11. What isn’t true?

    I say in the above piece:

    That makes no sense. “We Are the World” was recorded in an all-night recording session following the 1985 American Music Awards, under the theory that a lot of the people who would be performing in the song were there already as performers or presenters (like Lionel Richie, Cyndi Lauper, The Pointer Sisters, Huey Lewis, Hall and Oates, Kenny Loggins, Tina Turner, Diana Ross, Kenny Rogers, Al Jarreau, James Ingram, Quincy Jones and Stevie Wonder), and Madonna was a presenter at the award ceremony. So obviously, Madonna could have easily recorded the song and continued her concert tour.

  12. To answer Super Nova’s question: Yes, there was a metal collaboration called Hear n’ Aid. The main song, written by Ronnie James Dio, was called “We’re Stars”

  13. Does anyone know if Rick Springfield was asked to be in We Are The World? Or was he asked and decline? I am a fan, I have been since the early 80s. I have just always been curious as to why he wasn’t included. Ironically, he is in the Netflix special, The Greatest Night in Pop. Just 2 really quick shots of him at the AMA before the filming of We Are The World. So, that just has me curious. I haven’t found anything on the Internet as to why he wasn’t involved.

  14. Seems it was a little more than choosing Cyndi Lauper over Madonna even if there wasn’t room for 2 female solo lines… which there probably was but maybe not. My guess is what’s unsaid that Ken didn’t like Madonna because she’s often “not nice”, herself. I think he didn’t want to work with her. Michael Jackson has said as much too about Madonna being unkind, but not sure if that was before the inception of We are the World or years after. I get it. They knew Prince was a diva too and still wanted him so there’s that…but I guess I would have pushed for Prince too regardless and risked him not showing up.

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