Ryan White was diagnosed with AIDS in 1984 at the age of 13 after he received a tainted blood treatment for hemophilia.. At that time, AIDS was poorly understood, and despite doctors having said he posed no risk to other students, many parents and teachers rallied against his attendance when Ryan tried to return to school. A lengthy legal battle with the school system ensued, and media coverage of the case made Ryan into a national celebrity and spokesman for AIDS research and public education.
In the late 80's, Michael Jackson reached out to Ryan and befriended him. Ryan visited Neverla...
IMPORTANT UPDATE ABOUT THE "WE ARE THE WORLD" REMAKE PROJECT
Several people submitted videos for the project, but others asked for more time to submit theirs, so I'm pushing back the deadline to April 25th.
Please send your submission as soon as possible! I'd like to have the final video released before the end of April.
Unfortunately, people's attention is slowly drifting away from Haiti. People first reacted because they were shocked and moved by the situation, but even though the media don't show what's going on there as much as they did few months ago, there is still a situation o...
25 years ago, on January 28, 1985, more than 45 of America's best musicians went to a recording studio after the American Music Awards ceremony to record together, under the name "USA for Africa", one of the most famous humanitarian anthems ever, "We Are The World".
The song, penned by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, and produced by Quincy Jones, became the biggest selling single of all time and raised more than $63 million, which allowed USA for Africa to support more than 500 projects and help millions of people in 18 countries in Africa.
Tonight after the Grammy Awards ceremony, to...
Following the violent earthquake that hit Haiti last week, Make That Change has decided to create a fundraising team on the UNICEF website for all the Michael Jackson fans who want to come together and help the victims of this terrible earthquake: Team Michael.
The effort is critical in Haiti, where almost half the population is under 18 years of age. UNICEF is there to help save children by providing health care, water and sanitation, and adequate nutrition.
UNICEF is also there to bring immediate protection to children who have been abandoned or separated from their families. And UNI...
It all started with a conversation with my friend Marion while we were standing in line for the premiere of "Michael Jackson's This Is It" last October.
I was thinking about the fact that this Christmas would be our very first Christmas without Michael Jackson, it would also be exactly 6 months to the day he died, and I felt it would be the worst Christmas of my life.
Christmas is traditionally a family event, but my family doesn't really celebrate it. But I love Christmas so every year, I spend it with the family of one of my friends. However, this year, I wanted to do something differe...
Several people submitted videos for the project, but others asked for more time to submit theirs, so I’m pushing back the deadline to April 25th.
Please send your submission as soon as possible! I’d like to have the final video released before the end of April.
Unfortunately, people’s attention is slowly drifting away from Haiti. People first reacted because they were shocked and moved by the situation, but even though the media don’t show what’s going on there as much as they did few months ago, there is still a situation of emergency there.
Haiti is now facing another challenge with the rainy saison coming, 1.3 million people are homeless (including 450,000 children) and tents and shelters are missing. The risk of hurricanes, floods and mudslides is also very high.
Don’t wait until more terrible images hit the news and act now to help Haiti! This song will help us promote “Team Michael”, a fundraising team of Michael Jackson fans for UNICEF. “Team Michael” already raised nearly $9,000! We hope the song will help us raise even more and remind people to not forget Haiti.
As previously announced, Quincy Jones teamed up with Lionel Richie to remake the song with more than 60 artists. “We Are The World 25 For Haiti” was premiered during the Vancouver Olympic Games opening ceremony on American television.
Quincy Jones also authorized Latin American artists to record a Spanish version: “Somos El Mundo 25 Por Haiti”.
These remakes inspired many people to cover the song as well and to post their own versions on YouTube, which gives similar results to what we would like to do with our remake. Here is probably the best one, recorded by singers of the YouTube community.
How about Michael Jackson fans? Wouldn’t be a great tribute to Michael to use his song to reach out to the world and help Haiti? There should be a Michael Jackson fan version too! You don’t have to be a professional or confirmed singer to be a part of it. If you can just sing a couple of lines from the song, then you can join the project!
Be a part of “Team Michael” now and help Haiti by donating your voice!
We don’t just need singers but also musicians and people who can translate the lyrics in other languages. We received translations in Romanian, Portuguese, German, Danish, Italian… but we need many more!
Find more details about the remake project and the submission rules:
25 years ago, on January 28, 1985, more than 45 of America’s best musicians went to a recording studio after the American Music Awards ceremony to record together, under the name “USA for Africa”, one of the most famous humanitarian anthems ever, “We Are The World”.
The song, penned by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, and produced by Quincy Jones, became the biggest selling single of all time and raised more than $63 million, which allowed USA for Africa to support more than 500 projects and help millions of people in 18 countries in Africa.
Tonight after the Grammy Awards ceremony, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of “We Are The World” and to help the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti, many singers will join together to record a new version of the song, once again conducted by Quincy Jones, who will of course request everyone to “check [their] egos at the door”.
But tonight, it is also our turn to celebrate a song that inspired so many other artists around the world to follow USA for Africa’s example and to get together and sing for the world. This song allowed singers to see they can use their art to make a difference and allowed us to see we can achieve great things for the world when many people join for a cause. It became a natural thing for us to buy a charity song or to go to a relief concert, but it all started with groups like Baid Aid and USA for Africa and it all started with people like Michael Jackson.
Many of us spent the past decades relying on Michael to heal the world instead of trying to do it by ourselves. And tonight, it is time we pay attention to what Michael wrote in the song “We Are The World”:
“We can’t go on pretending day by day
That someone, somewhere will soon make a change”
This is why I came up with the idea that we can also get together, all around the world, and record our own version of “We Are The World”. We’ll show the world that we don’t need to be famous and we don’t need to rely on famous singers to use music to make a change and save lives. This might be a crazy idea, but we already showed the world that when Michael Jackson fans get together, they can raise thousands of dollars for a cause, as we did for Haiti thanks to “Team Michael”!
“Team Michael” already helped save hundreds of children in Haiti, but just imagine how many more children we could help if we used this song to raise awareness around the world. Imagine if your voice could save a life.
Today, I’m calling all the singers and musicians out there, no matter how old you are or where you’re from, no matter if you’re a Michael Jackson fan or not, no matter if you love to sing alone in your room or you’re part of a band or a choir at school, church or in any other organization, no matter if you’re an accomplished singer or not… you can help!
Are you ready? Grab a mic, shoot a video of you or your group or choir singing “We Are The World” and send it to Make That Change! We will then edit all videos together to create a unique music video of all your performances and publish it on YouTube and everywhere else! The video will be used to help us raise more funds for Haiti and will hopefully inspire millions of people around the world.
Let’s show the world what “We Are The World” really means, let’s show them that people around the world can get together and sing one song.
If you want to join the project and be part of United for Haiti, please read carefully what’s following.
It all started with a conversation with my friend Marion while we were standing in line for the premiere of “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” last October.
I was thinking about the fact that this Christmas would be our very first Christmas without Michael Jackson, it would also be exactly 6 months to the day he died, and I felt it would be the worst Christmas of my life.
Christmas is traditionally a family event, but my family doesn’t really celebrate it. But I love Christmas so every year, I spend it with the family of one of my friends. However, this year, I wanted to do something different, something that would keep me busy enough to avoid thinking about sad things. My friend told me that in 2008, she volunteered at a Christmas Eve dinner for the elderly and lonely people. I asked her if she would do it again this year, and this is how our project was born.
I told my friends on Facebook about our idea, and three other friends were interested in joining us. Most of us were Michael Jackson fans, and we felt this was something he would be happy to see us doing. But little did we know how much we would be able to pay tribute to Michael thanks to this!
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