We Are The World - 25 For Haiti

25 For Haiti

Main articles: We Are the World 25 for Haiti; and We Are the World 25 for Haiti (YouTube Edition); and Somos El Mundo.

On January 12, 2010, Haiti was struck by a magnitude-7.0 earthquake, the country's most severe earthquake in over 200 years. The epicenter of the quake was just outside the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. Over 230,000 civilians have been confirmed dead by the Haitian government because of the disaster and around 300,000 have been injured. Approximately 1.2 million people are homeless and it has been reported that the lack of temporary shelter may lead to the outbreak of disease.

To raise money for earthquake victims, a new celebrity version of "We Are the World" was recorded on February 1, 2010 and released on February 12, 2010. Over 75 musicians were involved in the remake, which was recorded in the same studio as the 1985 original. The new version features revised lyrics as well as a rap segment pertaining to Haiti. Michael Jackson's younger sister Janet duets with her late brother on the track, as per a request from their mother Katherine. In the video and on the track, archive material of Michael Jackson is used from the original 1985 recording.

On February 20, 2010, a non-celebrity remake, "We Are the World 25 for Haiti (YouTube Edition)", was posted to the video sharing website YouTube. Internet personality and singer-songwriter Lisa Lavie conceived and organized the Internet collaboration of 57 unsigned or independent YouTube musicians geographically distributed around the world. Lavie's 2010 YouTube version, a cover of the 1985 original, excludes the rap segment and minimizes the Auto-tune that characterizes the 2010 celebrity remake. Another 2010 remake of the original is the Spanish-language "Somos El Mundo". It was written by Emilio Estefan and his wife Gloria Estefan, and produced by Emilio, Quincy Jones and Univision Communications, the company that funded the project.