We Are the World 25 for Haiti (YouTube edition)

"We Are the World 25 for Haiti (YouTube Edition)"
Single by 57 YouTube musicians
Released February 20, 2010
Format YouTube video
(360p, 480p, 720p-HD)
Genre Pop
Length 7:30
Writer(s) Michael Jackson
Lionel Richie
Producer Lisa Lavie (collaboration) /
Lisa Lavie and Iman Crosson (co-editing)
Certification
Music video
"We Are the World 25 For Haiti (YouTube Edition)" on YouTube

"We Are The World 25 for Haiti (YouTube Edition)" is a massively collaborative charity song and music video produced by Canadian singer-songwriter Lisa Lavie and posted to the YouTube video sharing website to raise money for victims of the January 12, 2010 Haiti earthquake.

"We Are The World 25 for Haiti (YouTube Edition)"[1] is the video creation of a collaboration of 57 unsigned or independent YouTube musicians geographically distributed around the world. Lavie's video is a cover of We Are the World, which was produced in 1985 for African famine relief.[2] Lavie's video was posted as a video response to the celebrity remake, We Are the World 25 for Haiti, which was posted eight days earlier.[3]

The video was named best viral video of 2010 in CNN Newsroom's "Viral Video Rewind," and was recognized by YouTube's official "theyearinreview" channel in its "Moments That Defined YouTube in 2010" feature. The video's participants were collectively recognized as "Persons of the Week" on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer.

In May, 2011, most of video's participants collaborated in a second charity video and original single, "We Pray For You," to benefit victims of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami (Japan) and 2011 tornado outbreak (southern United States).

Contents

Making the video

Lavie conceived, organized, performed in, and with fellow YouTube personality Iman Crosson, co-edited, the video for charity relief[4] of victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake occurring the month before.[5][6][7][8][9]

Lavie said that she “was in the car driving and the idea to do a YouTube version of We Are the World popped into (her) head."[10] She determined how to assign portions of the song to respective YouTube singers, by "going to each singer’s (YouTube) channel and listen(ing) to their voices to get a better idea of how high or low a singer could sing, if a particular part would sound better with their tonal quality, etc."[10]

In interviews on CNN[5][6][7][8] and ABC World News,[9] Lavie explained how the video was made, given that its 57 contributors would not be performing in the same studio and generally did not even know each other.[11] After deciding on the assignments of singers to song segments, she sent all the singers the same instrumental backing. A Radio Canada feature[12] included a video segment of Montréal singer Heidi Jutras' vocal performance, in which she suppressed the instrumental accompaniment by using earphones. The singers then returned their respective vocal video segments to Lavie electronically, for the visual segments to be edited, and the audio to be mixed and edited, over the course of "three days (and) one sleepless night." Lavie specifically pointed out the challenge of mixing the vocal segments, made "tedious"[13] by the segments' different sound levels, recorded in different acoustic environments (bathrooms, kitchens, bedrooms), and made by microphones of different type and quality.[14] The resulting composite vocal and visual segments, combined with the single instrumental backing, constituted the video that was uploaded to YouTube.

The video was posted as a YouTube "video response"[15] to the 2010 celebrity remake video[3] on YouTube, whose last minute included a video annotation[16] inviting such video responses. CNN's Josh Levs made special note[5][6][7] of Lavie's pervasive use of YouTube's video annotation[16] feature: her video continually provided successive video annotation hyperlinks to the YouTube channels of the respective contributing singers as their images appeared on-screen throughout the performance. Lavie's video included a video annotation hyperlink to the wearetheworld official YouTube channel,[17] which in turn contained a hyperlink for donations for Haiti earthquake relief.

Media coverage

Called "a massive charity collaboration for the digital age" by CTV's national television program Canada AM,[18] within days after it was posted the video became the subject of worldwide media attention.[12][13][14][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] Media coverage included multiple national television features on CNN[5][6][7][8][11] and a primetime news feature on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer.[9][36]

CNN's Josh Levs reported that "a lot of people are telling us that this is better than the celebrity remake. It certainly is a sign of the times and a case of where we are right now."[5] In the second CNN interview that was aired, CNN's Richard Lui remarked "This really is sort of—not to be trite here—we are the world," alluding to the song's title "We Are the World." Levs added that "Richard's exactly right. ... Getting together fifty-seven singers, all over the world, ... and they all made their own recordings, and the world therefore put these different (recordings) together."[6]

ABC's Diane Sawyer conducted a Skype interview with Lavie, asking her motivation for making the video. Lavie responded that "the way we (singers) give back is by singing."[22][36] Singer Melissa Polinar explained, "We didn't really do it to compete with the remake,"[36] with Lavie emphasizing that the YouTube collaboration "reaches people in a different way."[36]

Hours after ABC News posted the Skype interview online, the collaboration video's participants were recognized as "Persons of the Week" on the nationally televised ABC World News with Diane Sawyer to close the work week on Friday, March 19, 2010.[9] The television broadcast paired segments of celebrity singers' performances with those of YouTube singers who sang the corresponding segments of the song, with Sawyer narrating: "He may not be Lionel Ritchie, but the fourteen-year old high school student in his bedroom in his bedroom in Perth, Australia, can sing. Instead of Al Jarreau, this manager of a California youth program. In for Michael Jackson, a community college student. Diana Ross has been replaced by a young woman in Montréal singing in her bathroom. And for Dionne Warwick, this receptionist at a hair salon in Santa Barbara."[9] Sawyer's further explanation: "Perfect strangers, perfect harmony, making a joyful sound... in effect saying, we are the world, too... And so (for "Persons of the Week") we choose Lisa Lavie and the singers she brought together around the globe, who proved that that anthem is not just for glittering names."[9]

The day following the ABC World News feature, CNN online posted a supplemental feature that was being broadcast on CNN International: a "YouTube sensation, a new version of the popular song that's attracted more than 1.7 million views—and not a celebrity in sight."[11]

Three days after the ABC World News feature, USA Today characterized[19] Lavie as a "visionary" for conceiving the "phenom" YouTube video.

A Radio Canada feature[12] emphasized the divergent sources of the segments constituting the video, noting that some of the 57 contributors sang "in their bedroom, living room or even in their bathroom" but that the result is assez remarquable (quite remarkable).

CNN's Josh Levs explained that "the official YouTube channel of the celebrity version, is now posting this (YouTube collaboration) version there,"[6] meaning that a thumbnail photo link to the YouTube collaboration video was displayed as a "Favorite" on the YouTube channel[38] of the We Are The World Foundation[39] adjacent the official celebrity remake video.

Formal recognition

Reception by viewers

The video received its first half-million views on YouTube in two days,[13] and more than 830,000 views in its first six days.[25]

Within five months of being posted, the YouTube video had been viewed over 3.18 million times,[37] had received almost 20,000 comments,[37] had been "favorited" over 48,500 times,[42] and was the seventh most highly rated YouTube Canada music video of all time.[43]

Reunion performances

The video's participants, who had been geographically distributed at the time of its creation in February 2010, performed together in the same geographic location in Washington, D.C. in December of that year.[10] The singers and musicians were assembled on the same stage at a private business' Christmas event.[45]

Thirty-seven of the original video's singers were among participants in a second massively collaborative YouTube charity video, "We Pray For You - 55 Youtubers Edition - Japan/ US Tornado Tribute (Original song)." J Rice organized the second video's geographically distributed participants, and edited and mixed the video that was posted to YouTube on May 9, 2011. Proceeds from a resulting iTunes and Amazon.com single "We Pray For You (YouTubers Edition)" benefitted victims of the March 11, 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami (Japan) and 2011 tornado outbreak (southern United States).[44] After ten days, that video had over 175,000 views and a "Like/Dislike" ratio of 166, and by its 23rd day reached 250,000 views with the ratio expanding to 174.[46]

The Tokyo Times referred to the "We Pray for You" video as an example of a trend to use crowdsourcing for charitable purposes.[47] The "We Pray for You" video was featured on CNN Headline News' "Hottest Viral Videos" on June 18, 2011.[48]

Contributors to the video

According to the "sidebar" (textual description) of the subject video:[37]

Singers

Singers are recited in the order listed in the subject video's sidebar:

  • Troye Sivan
  • Melissa Polinar
  • Ben Sharkey
  • Iann Guérin
  • Bruce & Daniel
  • Mishal Moore
  • Ahmir (group)
  • Blair Perkins
  • Lyne Sullivan
  • Lois Mahalia
  • Chris Cendana
  • Jumoke Hill
  • J Rice
  • Luna Mae
  • SamDaSinga
  • Anhayla
  • Maria Zouroudis
  • Lisa Lavie
  • David Choi
  • Richard Rick Rose
  • Nick Pitera
  • AJ Rafael
  • Lucas Teague
  • Jessica Sanchez
  • Thia Megia
  • Shan Malaika
  • Airto
  • Emmanuelle Auger
  • Laura Broad
  • BeeKay
  • Sheena Melwani
  • Dan Talevski
  • Frank Bell
  • Orlando Dixon
  • Iman Crosson
  • JR Aquino
  • Eric Arceneaux
  • Stacy Dudero
  • Meghan Tonjes
  • James Dupre
  • Heidi Jutras
  • Anna Moya
  • Laura Song
  • Renee Thomas
  • Jon McSingee
  • Laurence
  • Nick Gardner
  • Jon Cahlander
  • Julie Corrigan

See also

References

  1. ^ Subject video "We Are The World 25 For Haiti (YouTube Edition)" (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)) was posted to YouTube channel lisalavie1 on February 20, 2010.
  2. ^ "USA for Africa" website (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)) has a link to the 1985 video on iTunes.
  3. ^ a b Celebrity remake video "We Are The World 25 For Haiti - Official Video" (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)) was posted to YouTube channel wearetheworld on February 12, 2010.
  4. ^ a b c d e Levs, Josh, "YouTube Singers Rock for Haiti", CNN video, March 6, 2010, was posted as a YouTube video " CNN Newsroom / YouTube singers rock for Haiti" to CNN's official YouTube channel on March 6, 2010 (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)) and in "We Are The World (Youtube Edition) on CNN / PART 1" video posted to YouTube channel LLjustlikeamovie on March 6, 2010 (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)).
  5. ^ a b c d e f A second Josh Levs (CNN) segment, distinct from the first segment, was broadcast later on March 6, 2010: "We Are The World (YouTube Edition) CNN / Part 2" video (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)) was posted to YouTube channel LLjustlikeamovie on March 6, 2010.
  6. ^ a b c d A third distinct Josh Levs (CNN) segment, "YouTubers do 'We Are the World'", aired March 7, 2010.
  7. ^ a b c Textual transcripts of programs on which the CNN videos aired, are found at "CNN SATURDAY MORNING NEWS" (March 6, 2010; WebCite archive), "CNN NEWSROOM" (March 6, 2010; WebCite archive), and "CNN SUNDAY MORNING" (March 7, 2010; WebCite archive).
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Sawyer, Diane, "Persons of the Week" feature, ABC World News with Diane Sawyer (March 19, 2010). National television news feature can be seen in the "Lisa Lavie's Interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC World News" video posted to YouTube channel LLjustlikeamovie on March 19, 2010 (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)).
  9. ^ a b c d e "We Are The World (YouTube Edition) is one of the top 50 videos that defined You Tube for 2010" includes interviews of Lisa Lavie, J. Rice, members of Ahmir (group), and Maria Zouroudis (WebCite archive), The Star Scoop music news section, December 31, 2010.
  10. ^ a b c Church, Rosemary (CNN), "We Are the World, part two", CNN Video (international), March 20, 2010.
  11. ^ a b c "La version revisitée de « WE ARE THE WORLD » sur YOUTUBE", Radio Canada, "Entrevue du mercredi 24 février 2010" (Interview of Wednesday February 24, 2010) (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)).
  12. ^ a b c Jones, Anthony, "Lisa Lavie And Participants Talk YouTube Version Of 'We Are The World'", gantdaily.com (central Pennsylvania, U.S.), February 23, 2010 (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)). Same article posted on NCbuy.com on same day (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)).
  13. ^ a b "YouTubers version of 'We Are the World' goes viral", Star Tribune.com, (Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.), March 6, 2010 (downloaded 2010-05-03). (WebCite archive (2010-07-22))
  14. ^ "YouTube Glossary: Video Responses" (WebCite archive (2010-07-27)) defines "video responses." Clickable thumbnail links of video responses are shown beneath the original video.
  15. ^ a b See YouTube's "Getting Started: Creating or editing annotations" (WebCite archive (2010-07-27)) page. Video annotations are usually textual blocks superimposed on the video, and may constitute hyperlinks to other videos or channels.
  16. ^ WeAreTheWorld channel on YouTube (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)).
  17. ^ "Lisa Lavie 'Angel' Live on CTV's Canada AM" video (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)) posted to YouTube channel "LLjustlikeamovie" on July 13, 2010 (downloaded 2010-07-17) (WebCite's archive 2010-07-15).
  18. ^ a b "Diane Sawyer gives props to visionary behind YouTube phenom 'We Are the World 25 For Haiti'", (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)), Kindness section of USA Today, March 22, 2010 (USA Today online article includes link to online version of the ABC World News feature three days earlier--WebCite archive (2010-07-22)).
  19. ^ Smith, Mark W., "YouTube acts tackle 'We are the World'", Detroit Free Press (Michigan, U.S.), February 23, 2010 (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)).
  20. ^ "Less famous people remake 'We Are the World' -- and it takes off", USA Today online, February 25, 2010 (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)).
  21. ^ a b Huffington Post article, "Lisa Lavie's 'We Are the World YouTube Edition' Keeps Focus on Haiti", March 19, 2010 (downloaded 2010-05-02) (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)).
  22. ^ "We Are The World on YouTube", "The Ladies' Lounge" section of Ladies' Home Journal, March 25, 2010 (downloaded 2010-05-10) (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)).
  23. ^ "Santa Barbara receptionist in ‘We Are The World’ video, ABC World News Tonight", Santa Barbara News Network (California, U.S.), "NOW" category, March 20, 2010 (downloaded 2010-06-07) (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)).
  24. ^ a b Custeau, Jonathan (La Tribune), "Une Drummondvilloise dans une vidéo internationale de We Are The World", ("Drummondville Woman in international video of We are the World") (WebCite archive), La Presse (Canadian newspaper), February 27, 2010.
  25. ^ Lee, Joanne, "They are the world", The Straits Times (Singapore), February 23, 2010 (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)).
  26. ^ Spears, Steve, "YouTube's remake of 'We Are The World' is best version yet", tampabay.com (Florida, U.S.), St. Petersburg Times, February 25, 2010 (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)).
  27. ^ Editie NL Editienl.com portion of rtl.nl (Netherlands). Relevant segment plays after advertisement and more than a minute into the ensuing video. Video link was in right side bar, labeled 23-1-2010 (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)).
  28. ^ "Youtube Joins Together for ‘We Are the World’", Shine-On Media, February 20, 2010 (downloaded 2010-06-07) (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)).
  29. ^ "Suben a YouTube un video musical amateur recreando We Are The World" ("Rising YouTube amateurs recreate 'We Are the World'"), impulsonegocios.com (Argentina), February 23, 2010 (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)).
  30. ^ Puccio, Massimiliano, "We are the world 25 anni dopo per Haiti (YouTube Edition)" ("25 anni dopo per Haiti" = "25 years later for Haiti"), 100blog.it (Italy), February 22, 2010 (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)).
  31. ^ Reeves, Kelly, 'We Are the World 25 for Haiti' (YouTube Edition) -- The Internet Is the World (WebCite archive), urlesque.com, February 22, 2010.
  32. ^ Jaye, S. D., "Pomplamoose, Lisa Lavie, Ricardo Munoz – YouTube Spotlight – 05/21/2010" (WebCite archive), Rickey.org, May 21, 2010.
  33. ^ "本物超える歌声" (tr: "Net Beat Reporter"), "Science" section of "Top News" in MSN-Japan (WebCite archive), October 14, 2010.
  34. ^ Parthasarathy, Anusha, "Under the spotlight" subtitle "OFFBEAT The world is waking up to the immense potential for talent on YouTube" (WebCite archive), thehindu.com, February 25, 2011.
  35. ^ a b c d The Conversation: 'We Are the World' YouTube Edition (ABC World News) (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)) and "Conversation: 'We Are the World' 2.0" (ABC World News Tonight) (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)) show the same informal video feature by Diane Sawyer that was conducted by Skype and posted online March 19, 2010, several hours before the television production broadcast (TV feature is referenced in a separate footnote).
  36. ^ a b c d WebCite's archive (2010-07-15) of the subject video.
  37. ^ WebCite's archive (2010-07-17) of the WeAreTheWorld YouTube Channel. Video thumbnails do not always appear in WebCite archives; favoriting of the collaboration is confirmed in lower left of web page which states "wearetheworld favorited a video (4 months ago)."
  38. ^ We Are The World Foundation (charitable foundation) website (WebCite archive (2010-07-22)).
  39. ^ "CNN's Josh Levs picks his favorite Viral Video Rewind highlights of 2010" feature (WebCite archive), under "CNN Newsroom" on CNN.com, and Josh Levs announcement of selection. Textual transcript: "CNN NEWSROOM...Aired December 26, 2010-16:00 ET" (WebCite archive). Television broadcast of December 26, 2010 CNN "Viral Video Rewind" was recorded and uploaded to CNN.com website on December 29, 2010.
  40. ^ "The Moments That Defined YouTube in 2010" feature (WebCite archive) on YouTube's official "TheYearInReview" channel, mid-December 2010. Find subject video in "February" segment of timeline.
  41. ^ WebCite's archive (2010-07-15) of YouTube's page showing most "favorited" (Canada) music videos of all time.
  42. ^ WebCite's archive (2010-07-15) of YouTube's page showing most highly rated (Canada) music videos of all time.
  43. ^ a b "We Pray For You - Japan Tribute (55 Youtubers Edition) (Original song)" video (WebCite archive) posted to YouTube channel "JRiceProductions" on May 9, 2011. Title changed to "We Pray For You -55 Youtubers Edition -Japan/ US Tornado Tribute (Original song)" by May 19, 2011 (2011-05-19 WebCite archive). Video was separately reported in "We Pray For You: YouTube Japan Tribute" (WebCite archive), ChannelAPA.com, May 9, 2011.
  44. ^ Custeau, Jonathan (La Tribune), "Deuxième tour du monde sur YouTube pour Heidi Jutras" ("Second World Tour on YouTube for Heidi Jutras") (WebCite archive), La Presse (Canadian newspaper), May 27, 2011.
  45. ^ WebCite archives of "We Pray for You..." video on 2011-05-19 (10 days) and 2011-06-01 (23 days)).
  46. ^ Smart, Richard, "Crowdsourcing: After Quakebook, We Pray For You" (WebCite archive), The Tokyo Times, May 11, 2011.
  47. ^ Levs, Josh, "YouTube singers help storm victims" (WebCite archive), CNN.com video with caption "YouTube singers help storm victims, and a boy celebrates his first kiss. CNN's Josh Levs has the latest viral videos." Posted June 19, 2011 for CNN Headline News broadcast of previous day. If WebCite archive is not visible in your browser, view text by right-clicking in center of page and choosing "View Frame Info" (or your browser's equivalent).

External links

Affected geography
Humanitarian response
Aid operations
Benefits & fundraising