Jay-Z said: "We Are The World' is [musically] untouchable." So when the invite was sent to Roc-A-Nidas, he respectfully declined with Beyonce following his lead along with Solange (Ha! j/k). So was he right? Is that song musically untouchable?
The purpose for the remake was to raise funds to help relief efforts in Haiti which, by all accounts, a meaningful and necessary cause. There is no questioning behind the motives for the project and the money raised thus far are amazing. So yes, this classic song needed to be remade.
But from a musical standpoint, how does the new version measure up to the original? Was it a hit or miss?
Comparing the two versions is essentially comparing the musical talents of today with yesterday. And right off the bat, I will admit that comparing the likes of Jennifer Hudson, Jamie Foxx and Pink to Stevie Wonder, Tiny Turner and Cindy Lauper is unfair. You can't compare legends to amateurs. But my god were some of the artist selections terrible. I know some of the heavyweight artists wanted to respect the song like Jay Z which lowers the pool of talent that Quincy Jones and Lionel Ritchie can pick from. But there were definitely some solos that were questionable, baffling and utterly laughable.
1. Pink - If Jones and Ritchie wanted a female singer that looks like a man, then they made the right choice. But if they wanted one that could sing, they should've facebooked KD Lang. Pink’s raspy voice makes me want to stick a knife in my ear.
2. Justin Bieber - I can't think of a teen pop star in the past decade that has annoyed me more than this guy. Not only did he get a solo part, he was the leadoff!!! That's right, he got to sing Lionel Ritchie's lines, “There comes a time when we heed a certain call.” Hey Bieber, heed this call…. Beat it!
3. Miley Cyrus – Ok nevermind, there are two teen pop stars that piss me off. Talentless, mooching off the success of daddy and is destined to pull a Britney somewhere down the line. Quincey and Lionel probably wanted to catch Cyrus before she enters rehab, shaves her head, and gets a tattoo of Beiber’s face.
4. T-Pain – I understand autotune is the trend right now. But its unauthenticity ruins the classic. If they were willing to autotune, why stop with T-Pain. Give me Cher. Or better yet, why don’t you autotune Pink before I go completely deaf.
5. All the rap verses – Anytime you see an all-rap boy band consisting of Snoop Dogg, LL Cool J, Busta, and Will.I.AM you have to take a step back and ask yourself, “Have I finally lost my mind?”
Although there were some screw ups, there were a lot of highlights with the remake. Great to see Quincy and Ritchie reunite. Getting power voices like Celine Dion, Jennifer Hudson, and Mary Mary gave the remake musical quality to make me listen to it again… and again. But it would’ve been great to see some of the artists from the first version in the new version. The likes of Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Willie Nelson or even Ritchie reclaiming the leadoff… old school meets new school. Chances are the invites were sent but were declined. Why? Because they see We Are the World is a classic and classics are meant to be left alone. You know… untouchable.Overall, the song is a hit. The chorus will still give you goosebumps and the incorporation of MJ was a classy move. I understand adding the diverse mix of artists was to appeal to as many different demographics as possible, from teeny poppers (Bieber and Cyrus) to young adults (Usher and Kanye) to your grandparents (Bennett and Streisand). And it worked. And a lot of money was raised.
Proposition of Today (POT): Check out both versions of We Are the World. What do you think?
Original Version:
New Version:
While you’re at it, please make a donation to Haiti:
