Behind the Scenes of a Major Music Moment

It’s one of the biggest moments in pop culture and music history, and it’s now the subject of a new Netflix documentary!

“The Greatest Night in Pop” will tell the story of how the song “We Are the World” came to be… complete with never-before-seen footage, interviews, and more.

The song was created in 1985 to benefit famine relief in Africa, and the effort was led by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson. Billy Joel, Cyndi Lauper, Huey Lewis, Kenny Loggins, Smokey Robinson, Kenny Rogers, Diana Ross, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, and Dionne Warwick were just some of the other famous musicians who took part.

The movie’s trailer just came out and it’s apparent that this effort to get everyone together to record the song was… difficult! 

“The greatest artists of a generation came together to sing some lines. But we only had one night to get this right,” said Richie in the trailer.

He said one of the problems was coming up with the lyrics, because all they had to start with was some humming!

“I’m at the house with Michael (Jackson) writing the song. He hums every part. Tapes and tapes of just layered and layered of him humming,” Richie said. “We now have a template with mumbles and no words. What do we want to do? We’re talking to the world, so we have to talk this out.”

“We Are the World” generated more than $60 million in sales to assist Africans affected by the famine. It also won three Grammy Awards.

Take a look at the trailer – and the video – and be sure to watch when “The Greatest Night in Pop” hits Netflix on January 29!