What's the Closest Thing to We Are The World in 2024?
And other bits of nostalgia that I may or may not be craving.
Unexpected Emotional Response #1:
Two weeks ago I opened Instagram and watched Beyonce’s stories. It was a compilation of clips of different dances created to her new song Texas Hold ‘Em. It featured a wide range of people — age, race, gender, ability — and extraordinary amounts of talent. I watched the series three times in a row and realized I was crying. I wondered if I was just exhausted — it was Wednesday, March 20th and Alt Summit (the conference I run) had just finished up a couple hours before. So it might have been exhaustion, but it felt like something else.
(Beyonce doesn’t have a highlight of those stories, so I can’t link to them — sorry! But there are countless tiktoks/reels of people dancing to the song if you’d like to get the idea of what I was seeing).
Unexpected Emotional Response #2:
Over Easter weekend, I watched The Greatest Night In Pop (Netflix). It’s about the making of the song We Are The World. I loved it so much. I can imagine any GenX-er watching it would be as equally entranced as I was. All these musical celebrities from my youth, across every genre, in one room at the same time! No assistants or PR people or support staff were allowed at the recording, so it was just the celebrities interacting with each other, with no one handling or managing them. And unusual and remarkable situation.
There was one particularly beautiful scene with Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder. Bob Dylan seemed happy to be there, but also out of place — he’s just not a singer in the same way as many of the celebrities that were in attendance, and he wasn’t sure how to deliver his assigned line. Stevie Wonder understood what was happening and took Bob Dylan over to the piano; Stevie Wonder then sat with Bob Dylan, and mimiced Dylan’s voice and modeled how to sing the line in a way that would work for the song, but also work for Dylan’s voice and singing-style. Then Stevie Wonder had the room cleared so that it was just himself and Bob Dylan when it was time to record the line — making it a much less pressured situation. It was so sweet and kind.