The song was first released 35 years ago.
The world is in need of some unity amid the coronavirus pandemic -- and Lionel Richie thinks a re-release of "We Are the World" might do the trick.
It's been 35 years since over 40 stars came together to record the song to raise money for African famine. The track ended up raising $63 million. Richie, who wrote "We Are the World" with Michael Jackson, said he's considered writing a new song, but the same words keep coming out.
"Every time I try and write another message, I write those same words," he told People in an interview published on Sunday.
"Two weeks ago, we said we didn’t want to do too much [about the song's 35-year anniversary] because this is not the time to sell an anniversary," Richie added. "But the message is so clear."
It's the chorus line, "There's a choice we're making, we're saving our own lives," that particularly sticks with Richie.
"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,'" Richie recalled. "'We Are the World' is a statement we wanted to make. What do we do to save our own?'"
A version of "We Are the World" was released in 2010 to raise money for Haiti earthquake relief, and Richie is ready for that same kind of unity.
"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," he said. "All of us are in this together."
See more in the video below.
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