Doesn’t Haiti Deserve Its Own Song?

As part of the many outreach efforts for the victims of the Haitian earthquake, many of the music industry’s most popular performers recorded a charity single on February 1.

Over 100 artists united across genre lines – country (Keith Urban), rap (Lil Wayne, Kanye West), pop (Celine Dion, Tony Bennett), jazz (Harry Connick, Jr.) and r&b (Toni Braxton, Usher)— to participate in a remake of “We Are The World.”

I don’t want to be a spoil sport, but color me unimpressed.

Given all the available talent, couldn’t they have written an original song?

Would it have been that difficult to come up with something that addresses the particulars of the Haitian situation?

The choice of a 25 year old song written about the Ethiopian famine is especially baffling considering that Wyclef Jean, a native of Haiti, was involved in this project.

You don’t have to stretch your memory too far to recall a time when artists responded to the challenge of musical activism with creativity:

“Do They Know It’s Christmas” (1984) addressed the Ethiopian famine a year before “We Are The World.”

“Sun City” (1985) took on apartheid

“King Holiday” (1986) celebrated the Martin Luther King national holiday

“Self Destruction” (1988) and “We’re All In The Same Gang” (1991) spoke out against black on black crime and gang violence, respectively.

The Red Hot Organization has been releasing albums to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS since 1990.

And that’s to say nothing of individual works from artists like Bob Marley, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, U2, and Public Enemy.

I know that we live in a world where revisiting the past is seen as an acceptable form of artistry, whether it be sampling or countless remakes of television shows and films. But I think it’s a sad day when even charitable work succumbs to that level of laziness.