USA for Africa

Biography & Overview

"We Are the World" is a charity single recorded by the supergroup USA for Africa in 1985. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones for the album We Are the World to raise money for the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. With sales in excess of 20 million physical copies, it is the eighth-best-selling single of all time. After the British group Band Aid released the charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in 1984, the musician and activist Harry Belafonte decided to create an American single for African famine relief.