Madonna and Cyndi Lauper
Hated each other, right? and therefore the debate over which of them to invite to come sing. They can't pick both.
shareI don't think it was that.
If I recall correctly (I was 10 at the time), at the time of recording We are the world, Cindy Lauper was a bigger name than Madonna.
We are the world was recorded just before Like A Virgin came out, so Madonna was mostly known for Holiday. No small hit, but nothing like Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.
But, once Like A Virgin came out, Madonna became bigger than pretty much everyone in 1985. She performed at Live Aid.
You may be right. I'm thinking of that time frame - 1985 was the year that Madonna went to the stratosphere. But it was after "Like a Virgin" was released - plus the Live Aid performance. Prior to that she was up and coming, definitely on the radar, but not huge yet.
Cyndi had a bunch of hits off of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun". By the time 1985 rolled around, she was still riding that wave. Then she got involved in wrestling. She was big time at that point.
I see "We are the World" was recorded 1/28/85. "Like a Virgin" was released 11/12/84. Madonna had the "Like a Virgin" video and then "Material Girl". Yeah, she was definitely kickin' it at that point.
So who was bigger? Eehh, its close. I can tell you this, when "We are the World" was released - there were two thoughts - "Where's Madonna?" and "Where's Prince?". WATW was released 3/7/85. Yeah, by that time, Madonna was passing Cyndi. Prince may have been bigger than Michael as well. Michael was still riding "Thriller" in 1985. Prince had "Purple Rain" - which was huge in 1984. Then he toured in 85, plus released another LP.
ANyway, that was fun, exercising my brain and thinking of 80s music. I really don't know why Madonna wasn't on WATW, well, Prince, too.
Interesting. Still, if Lauper was more famous at that time, why their is even Deliberation? Moreover, I got the impression that they didn't really try to make efforts to reduce the number of participants. More of an approach of 'everyone goes': invite all the stars of the era and whoever comes, comes.
Anyway, I prefer Cindy Lauper to Madonna; she's more unique and talented in my taste. I never understood Madonna's appeal.