Netflix debuted the official trailer for The Greatest Night in Pop, the music documentary film on the rollercoaster ride to write and record the 1985 charity hit song “We are the World”. This documentary goes behind the scenes of the historic event.
Release Date
Directed by Bao Nguyen, The Greatest Night in Pop world premieres at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival on January 19 and starts streaming on Netflix on January 29.
Synopsis
On January 25, 1985, dozens of the biggest names in music convened at a studio in Los Angeles, checked their egos at the door and recorded a song to benefit African famine relief that would alter global pop culture history. The Greatest Night in Pop chronicles the massive undertaking to assemble the world’s most impressive supergroup in a world before cell phones and email. That group of artists — led by the song’s co-writers and two of the most significant musicians of the 20th century — Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie — came from different worlds but united to record “We Are the World.”
Featuring never-before-seen footage, the film details the early planning stages, including the writing sessions with Richie and Jackson, and goes inside the famed Henson Studios where “We Are the World” was recorded.
Many of the artists who were there that legendary evening — Richie, Bruce Springsteen, Smokey Robinson, Cyndi Lauper, Kenny Loggins, Dionne Warwick, and Huey Lewis — reminisce alongside musicians, engineers, and production crew about one of the most storied nights in music history.
The Greatest Night in Pop was directed by Bao Nguyen and produced by Julia Nottingham, the team behind the acclaimed Bruce Lee documentary (Be Water).
“This story starts with a call from Harry Belafonte,” Nguyen tells Tudum, referring to the late singer and activist’s idea to have a benefit concert (an idea that evolved into recording a song) with the biggest stars of the moment. “To think about how that has reverberated, even again 40 years later, to a song that most people around the world still sing.”