Lionel Richie has said he’s considering recording a new version of ‘We Are The World’ to raise money for the fight against coronavirus.
The ‘Dancing On The Ceiling’ singer said he was not expecting to mark the 35th anniversary of the charity track – which featured the likes of Michael Jackson, Diana Ross and Cyndi Lauper, but he now believes that the pandemic has made its message “so clear” once again.
“Two weeks ago, we said we didn’t want to do too much [about the song] because this is not the time to sell an anniversary. But the message is so clear,” Richie explained.
He also singled out the significance of the chorus line: “There’s a choice we’re making, we’re saving our own lives.”
Describing how he originally penned the lyrics with Michael Jackson, he told People: “That line came about as Michael and I were sitting there talking. We said, you can either say, ‘I’m saving my life’ or ‘We’re saving our lives.’ ‘We Are the World’ is a statement we wanted to make. What do we do to save our own?”
He added: “We were back to there are ‘those people’ and ‘those people.’ If you find yourself saying ‘those people’ then you are not thinking properly. “What happened in China, in Europe, it came here. So if we don’t save our brothers there, it’s going to come home. It’s all of us. All of us are in this together.”
The original track, which also featured the talents of Kenny Rogers, Tina Turner and Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen and many more, raised over $63 million in humanitarian aid for Africa.
Richie added that he is currently at home, self-isolating with his own family.
“We are all hunkered down. Family is the key to this. It is the soother,” he explained.
