ATLANTA - Music
producers Quincy Jones and Jermaine
Dupri say the tsunami disaster in
Southeast Asia has prompted them to
postpone recording "We Are the
Future," an update of the 1985
benefit song "We Are the World."
"The timing
is not right for us to record a song
about the future when so many people
have lost their lives," Dupri
said in a statement Tuesday. Jones
and Dupri had planned to record the
new song on Feb. 14 as an afterparty/recording
session following the Grammy Awards,
which will be presented Feb. 13 in
Los Angeles.
"We Are the
World" was recorded by 43 artists
in a Los Angeles studio after the
American Music Awards ceremony in
January 1985. The song to benefit
Africa's hungry became an instant
and international hit, playing incessantly
on radio stations and MTV.
Proceeds from the
new song will go to help children
in war zones, particularly in areas
such as Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan,
said Jones' publicist, Arnold Robinson.
He emphasized that while helping these
children remains atop Jones' agenda,
tsunami relief takes precedence for
now. "There's obviously an immediate
need there right now," Robinson
said. "Thankfully, everybody
is being very giving at this point
and time."
Dupri told Rolling
Stone magazine last month that he
hoped to recruit Jay-Z, Usher and
Kanye West for the new song, but Robinson
wouldn't comment on who might participate
now that the recording is being rescheduled.
A new date should be set within the
next year, Robinson said. "We
Are the World," which was produced
by Jones, featured some of the music
industry's heaviest hitters, including
Michael Jackson, Ray Charles, Bruce
Springsteen and Bob Dylan.
Copyright
2004 Associated Press
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