We Are The World 25 For HaitiToday, the We Are The World 25 For Haiti music video was released. Lionel Richie was on Oprah Winfrey earlier to talk about it.
According to MTV.com, Richie told Oprah how Michael Jackson would be included in the song and video.
He said:
We have Michael singing that exact part [the chorus] and Janet singing along with him.
Without further ado, here is the video along with a few comments from me underneath:
– Justin Bieber sings Lionel’s intro?
– Is that Nicole “The Terminator” Scherzinger singing next to Jennifer Hudson?
– Putting MJ and Janet together was very classy and cool. I’m proud of how they included him.
– Babs Streisand? Tony Bennett? I guess they had to average out the age because of Bieber and Miley Ray Cyrus.
– I think Enrique Iglesias had a hard time escaping our love.
– I think they should’ve had Jamie Foxx do Brother Ray’s memorable part.
– I get Wyclef being a part of the song, but they should’ve told him to save the “someone please call 911” voice.
– I thought Stevie Wonder came back for round two, but it was really Adam Levine.
– I’m surprised Pink wasn’t singing in the air and twirling around.
– Lionel: “Hey Usher, see, what we want you to do is do Huey Lewis’ part.” Usher: “Who is Huey Lewis?”
– Thankfully, I didn’t enlarge the video, or else Fergie’s face would’ve made me fall out of my chair. As it was, I only hid my eyes.
– Nicole “The Terminator” Scherzinger gets two parts? Is Lionel gettin’ that?
– Look at Toni Braxton with the 1980s skater hair-cut. Someone un-broke her heart.
– In the case of Lil’ Wayne, this time I approve of the Auto-tune.
– In the case of Akon, I don’t approve of the Auto-tune. Dude can sing a little bit.
– In the case of T-Pain, well, I would’ve rather seen MC Hammer on the track.
– Well, I guess I got my wish with Jamie singing Brother Ray’s part.
– I love that Uncle L, future of the funk, is leading the hip hop section. But um, where’s Kanye? And is that Tyrese with the rappers? Black Ty?
– Ok, there’s Kanye, but what is will.i.am doing standing with Kanye. Dude can’t hold Kanye’s jockstrap in a suit case.
There it is. I thought Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie did a really good job with the song, blending the original with some hip hop, and Wyclef’s Haitian sound.
No disrespect to Bob Dylan (or Smokey Robinson, who Dylan thinks is America’s greatest living poet), but no one writes songs better than Stevie Wonder, and that crown was sewn up back in 1976, when he was the biggest thing since sliced bread. In the thirty-plus years since “Songs in the Key of Life”, his run of classics has slowed, but it hasn’t stopped: “Lately”, “All I Do”, “That Girl”, “Overjoyed” and “These Three Words” are just a handful of the lyrical and vocal masterpieces that have come from a post-Seventies Stevie.
I won’t even get into the stuff he made before then. Let’s just say that “Talking Book”, “Innervisions” and “Songs in the Key of Life” are albums every human that’s into music should own (and “Fulfillingness’ First Finale, trippy as it is, isn’t a slouch, either). It’s an achievement to make one classic album; Stevie made a DECADE’s worth of them. No wonder the man has won more Grammy Awards than any other pop, rock or R&B performer in history.
One way you can judge a great song is by how many times it’s remade, and you could fill a box set with nothing but Stevie covers: everyone from Barbra Streisand to the Red Hot Chili Peppers to 2Pac to Wayne Brady has covered (or heavily sampled) Stevie. He has to be, apart from Dylan, the most covered songwriter of the rock era.
Those too young to remember Stevie in his Grammy-winning, slimmer phase and want to know who the dude with the sunglasses was that performed with the Jonas Brothers was definitely need to be schooled. His music, for the excellent lyricism, pioneering musicianship, stellar vocals (every R&B singer that doesn’t sound like Marvin or Michael sounds like Stevie) and positive message, is as relevant now as it was when it was first out.
I was fortunate enough to see Stevie live about 18 months ago, and with no light show and no choreography, blew the roof off of Madison Square Garden. I’ve been going to concerts fairly regularly for 15 years now, and I have never seen a better show.
In 1980, Stevie wrote and recorded a song called “Happy Birthday” in dedication to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Stevie was one of the most responsible forces for getting King’s birthday recognized as a national holiday). The song has also become a standard of sorts-go to a black birthday party and I guarantee someone’s gonna break into Stevie’s song either right before, during, or right after the candles are blown out!
Here are two of my favorite songs by him. One from his golden era (the lyrics to this song are among the best-and yet simplest-ever written), one from more recently.
Ok, so I have to say that last night’s show was one of the more fun Idol shows that I can remember. Many of the performances were better than good and there were only a few that were hard to sit through. Plus, we had Smoke Dog Robinson. What more could you ask for?
Well, tonight we not only get Smoke Dog performing (with Joss Stone for some reason), but we also get Ruben Studdard and Stevie Wonder. If I were a mean person I’d wonder if the American Idol folks promised a buffet tonight. But I’m not mean.
And though I wanted to see Steveland do more Burnin’ Up with the Jonas Brothers, it sounds like he’s going to do a Motown medley. That’s all good in my book. What’s Ruben going to do? I’m guessing he’s going to either celebrate someone home, or perform something from his new album which comes out very soon.
Before I get to the show, did you know that Kara DioGuardi is 38 years old? I’m not usually into older women, but you know, she could probably change that.
The 10 contestants are doing a Motown medley. Word came out today that these medleys are pre-taped and the contestants lip sync on stage. Really? Someone had to actually research this? Considering that these contestants get hammered for missing notes and being pitchy all the time, I figured they had to be pre-taped. They wouldn’t let them go live especially while trying to remember dance steps.
Big Rube Studdard is on stage now and he hit one long note and is already sweaty. How did that happen? The song is nice, but it’s not going to be Big Rube’s comeback song.
They show footage of the contestants flying from Los Angeles to Detroit in a jet. They show poor Scott yawning so they can make fun of him. How the heck was Scott supposed to know the camera was there? Someone on that show has a cruel sense of humor.
Adam is up first and they’re getting him out of the way first. He’s safe. By the way, his hair-do is back to Adam normal, which is just not normal for anyone else who didn’t go to the Adam Ant or Culture Club school of fashion. I did buy his version of Tracks Of My Tears on iTunes and sadly, it’s a studio version rather than the live version. It’s still nice, but it’s missing the component of him actually hitting those notes live.
Here’s a bad copy of Adam’s brilliant performance from last night. So far, this one hasn’t been taken down.
Matt is next up and he either has a huge zit on his forehead or it’s a mole. Have I not noticed that before? Matty is in the bottom three. America, I’m shaking my head at you. But Kris is safe. Of course he is. The guitar is more loved than the piano.
Lil Rounds is safe, but Michael is not. America, though I’m still shaking my head at you, you got that one right.
Joss Stone is out singing and Megan just looked at everyone and said, “See, that’s what I’m trying to do. Don’t you get it now?” Actually, Joss is trying the R&B thing a little too hard. I didn’t like it that much. Well, that is until Smoke Dog entered the building. With Smoke Dog and Stevie on the same show, I wonder if they are going for that over 50 demographic a bit hard? Also, it’s kind of hard watching 20-something year old Joss and 60-something year old Smoke Dog sing, “You’re the one for me,” to each other without wondering if Smoke Dog was her long lost grandfather.
Who is going to join Matty and Michael in the bottom three? Not Allison because she is safe. Anoop’s upside ya’ head is safe as well. Danny is safe and smiling.
Scott and Megan are up together and Megan was looking so pretty until she made this face to pretend that she was surprised at the bad feedback she received from the judges. It’s kind of hard to explain, but she bugged out her eyes, sunk in her cheek bones, puffed out that cleft above the upper lip, and I think gave herself a double chin. It was a frightening two seconds, but then her face went back to normal and all was well in the world again.
Scott is in the bottom three. Scott kind of looks like (believe it or not) “The Greatest American Hero”.
America, at least you got two out of three right.
Randall Jackson says Matt rocked the mike and doesn’t deserve to be there. Ryno sends Scott back to safety.
Stevie Wonder is doing a medley that starts off with My Cherie Amour. He moves onto Superstition and right when I expected the Jonas Brothers to come in and screw up Stevie’s lyrics, they were nowhere to be found.
Are we at the point where Steve just needs to cut off all his hair? Is there a reason for the dreadlocks if they cover only the latter half of his head? I love Steve more than maybe any entertainer on earth. I’m just trying to help.
Paula and her smooshed together boobs were dancing to Overjoyed while Stevie was singing. It started off a little rough for Steve as he forgot where the mic was, but he started to sing his ass off. Stevie then finished off with a song I didn’t recognize and neither did the rest of the contestants. They were hootin’ and a hollerin’ for Superstition and had to do some pretending with this song.
Matty is safe. Michael Sarver now has to sing for his American Idol career. He better not be too proud to beg. Because he has zero chance to overwhelm these judges and get saved. Carrie Underwood will send him back to Home Sweet Home.
Michael actually did a better job tonight than he did yesterday. But Simon still sent him home.
