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Latin Artists Record Song to Benefit Haiti Earthquake Victims

Latin Artists Record Song to Benefit Haiti Earthquake Victims

By Zayra Mo

MIAMI – Andy Garcia, Chayanne and Ednita Nazario were among the many Latin artists who recorded a version in Spanish of the song “We Are the World,” produced by Emilio Estefan, to benefit Haiti’s earthquake victims.

“I think it’s the most important production I have done in my career, because it brings together an endless list of artists from very different fields,” Estefan told Efe after Friday’s recording session. “The message that we’re sending the world will be spectacular because we have gathered together more than 100 singers.”

The “Somos el Mundo” project was a magnet for top Latin music stars this week at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, where a studio was prepared specifically for the occasion, with the goal of collecting funds for Haiti, a country blasted on Jan. 12 by a magnitude-7.0 earthquake that according to the most recent estimate took some 217,000 lives.

Such artists as Vicente and Alejandro Fernandez, Aventura, Banda El Recodo, Carlos Santana, Cristian Castro, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Jose Luis Rodriguez “El Puma,” Juan Luis Guerra, Lucero, Luis Enrique, Luis Fonsi, Milly Quezada, Natalia Jimenez, Olga Tañon, Patricia Manterola, Paulina Rubio, Pitbull, Ricardo Montaner, Thalia, and Wisin & Yandel all got together for the beneficent cause.

The song was produced by Gloria and Emilio Estefan and Quincy Jones, the producer of the two versions of the song in English.

“It’s a great responsibility and we haven’t been alone, Jones has spent these last few days on the telephone talking and working out the details of the version that we recorded today,” Estefan said.

“This is the first Michael Jackson song to be recorded since he died and we had to wait for approval of the version Gloria and I created. Of course, it had the approval of (Lionel) Richie and Jones,” he said.

Together with Jones, only two other people of those who took part in the first edition were present in the new “We Are the World 25,” the producers Richie and Humberto Gatica.

“Somos el Mundo” will premiere on March 1 in “El Show de Cristina” on the Univision network, along with behind-the-scenes shots and interviews with several of the participating artists.

“It’s very sad to think about the reason we’re making this united effort, I would have liked to make the recording under other circumstances,” Montaner said during a preproduction break.

Montaner, who is also a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, recalled that the first time he heard this song “I was starting out as a singer in Maracaibo, Venezuela.”

“I never thought that 25 years later I would be taking part, singing together with great fellow artists this tune that means so much to everyone. Singing together with my fellow artists was a very emotional experience. There is so much strength when we unite for a cause,” the Argentine-Venezuelan singer-songwriter said.

Montaner, who a couple of weeks ago staged a marathon for Haiti, said it was essential to save the children of that country, an opinion shared by Olga Tañon.

“If my voice serves as an instrument to help the children of that country, glory be!” the Puerto Rican said Friday in a communique.

Tañon sang a verse of the Spanish-language version of the song written in 1985 by the departed King of Pop.

“Somos amor, somos el mundo, somos la luz que alumbra con ardor lo mas oscuro...” (We are love, we are the world, we are the light that shines bright wherever is darkest...) is part of the line sung by the “Woman in Fire” Tañon, which in the English-language version was sung by Cindy Lauper.