THEY STOOD TOGETHER despite their gargantuan egos, creative differences and even adulation for each other, to pull an all-nighter. They tried, improvised and perfected their lines. And they made a change, worth $63 million, for the famine-affected people in Ethiopia. ‘We Are The World'—penned by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, and released in March 1985—was a fervid appeal to human compassion and decency, a call to action like no other, as the people behind it knew that a beautiful song has the power to unite the world. Jackson called it “a love song to inspire concern about a faraway place close to home”.
Between 1983 and 1985, a famine in Ethiopia, caused partly by drought and partly by a debilitating civil war, is estimated to have killed between four lakh to five lakh people (according to some accounts, the death toll is about 10 lakh) and displaced more than 20 lakh people. The desperation and deaths, which reminded people of the kifu qen (evil days) or ‘Great Famine’ that happened a century earlier, decimating nearly up to onethird of Ethiopia's population, moved the world to tears.
Singer, activist and The Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof, who learned about the “biblical famine” from a BBC news report by Michael Buerk, had, in December 1984, brought together a charity supergroup—Band Aid—of predominantly UK and Irish singers that included the likes of Paul McCartney and Sting, and came out with a single, 'Do They Know It's Christmas?', to raise money for the victims of the famine.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
What Will It Take To Clean Up Delhi Air?
IT IS ASKED, year after year, why Delhi’s air remains unbreathable despite several interventions to reduce pollution.
Trump and the crisis of liberalism
Although Donald Trump's election to a non-consecutive second term to the US presidency is not unprecedented—Grover Cleveland had done it in 1893—it is nevertheless a watershed moment.
Men eye the woman's purse
A couple of months ago, I chanced upon a young 20-something man at my gym walking out with a women’s sling bag.
When trees hold hands
A filmmaker explores the human-nature connect through the living root bridges
Ms Gee & Gen Z
The vibrant Anuja Chauhan and her daughter Nayantara on the generational gap in romance writing
Vikram Seth-a suitable man
Our golden boy of literature was the star attraction at the recent Shillong Literary Festival in mysterious Meghalaya.
Superman bites the dust
When my granddaughter Kim was about three, I often took her to play in a nearby park.
OLD MAN AND THE SEA
Meet G. Govinda Menon, the 102-year-old engineer who had a key role in surveying the Vizhinjam coast in the 1940s, assessing its potential for an international port
Managing volatility: smarter equity choices in uncertain markets
THE INDIAN STOCK MARKET has delivered a strong 11 per cent CAGR over the past decade, with positive returns for eight straight years.
Investing in actively managed low-volatility portfolios keeps risks at bay
AFTER A ROARING bull market over the past year, equity markets in the recent months have gone into a correction mode as FIIs go on a selling spree. Volatility has risen and investment returns are hurt.
