ditto on your first no idea
however your second no idea is
Al Jarreau
I am 37. I recognize 23. Plus 2 additional Jacksons (one guy one girl)
I’m 47, and I name recognized 21 of them.
I remember when it came out, and there was a minor kerfuffle about Prince choosing not to participate. I remember it because my best friend was a huge Prince fan, and would go on for hours defending her man, not realizing I didn’t really give a crap. I liked Prince, but not enough to feel outraged by how he was being viewed as a jerkwad because of this.
I’m 32, and I recognized 16 by name. There were a few I recognized but couldn’t place the name (Kim Carnes was one). I then cross checked by looking up the performers to make sure all the people I saw were actually there. I knew there were multiple other Jacksons, but I would not have been able to tell you which was which, so none of those were counted for me…and somehow I missed that Dan Akroyd was in there (according to the list)…didn’t see him. Cool study. Sure was a lot of Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen…I didn’t remember that they were so prominently featured when the song first came out (I do remember when it came out, and my parents bought the tape, so I listened to that quite a bit as a kid).
Prince had pretty good cover. If you bought the USA for Africa album, there was a Prince track, “4 The Tears in Your Eyes,” on it. So Princie did contribute to the effort - just not on the “We Are The World” single.
The title of jerkwad, I suppose, should go to Morrissey:
I am 30mumbltymumble years old (okay! 37 dammit!) and recognized almost all of them- but then I also remember when the song and video came out and remember all of us kids holding hands and singing along in the cafeteria for a school dance…
I was also struck by how young everyone looks and how silly I feel now thinking back at hard I was crushing on George Michael, Simon LeBon, et al…
As I was watching the video, I called my 20 year old son (thank you for not doing the math!) over and he recognized only a few of them and that is because I make him sit through my 80s collections pretty regularly. 
My 16 year old recognized only Cyndi Lauper (only because we used pictures of her as an inspiration for a hairstyle on “80s Day” at school) and my 13 year old recognized no one. I feel so old…
All of this.
Except I’m 54 and from the U.S.
I’m 53 and recognized everyone in “We Are The World” (except I thought Lindsey Buckingham was Neal Schon), but only 8 from Band-Aid. I wasn’t sure about anyone except Bob Geldof after Bono’s bit.
I’m really surprised that nobody’s mentioned Hear ‘N’ Aid. Those were the really important musicians of the eighties!!
:D:D
Jerkwad or not, everything he said was true. Ballsy to say it, even. Self-righteous, indeed!
So how many singers can you recognize from Old Aid?
I don’t dispute than Kim Carnes was a very odd choice, but she did have more than one hit. Her Wiki article sums up her career, and I was a bit surprised at how much she did.
One of the funniest things I have ever seen was a sketch performed by a couple of Club Med staffers in Noumea in 2000.
It was mimed to We Are The World, and involved a series of very quick changes that left you in very little doubt about who the singing artist was.
It finished with “Ray Charles” and “Stevie Wonder” blindly staggering about the stage, crashing through the props, and the audience in stitches.
Si (43, and I got about 75%)
I counted 35. Here are their initials as I was watching the video.
LR
SW
PS
KR
JaIn
TT
BJ
MiJa
DR
DW
WN
AJ
BS
KL
SP
DH
HL
CL
KC
JoOa
QJ
MaJa
TJ
LTJ
BD
RP
DA
SR
HB
JeOs
RC
BM
LB
AP
JP
I’m 37 years old.
My favourite ensemble charity song from the 80s is Ferry Aid, after the Zeebrugge Disaster. The group makeup is somewhat different, somewhat loaded with Stock, Aiken, Waterman artists (they produced it), and Paul McCartney used his original 1970 vocals for Let It Be.
Si
I’m 48, so I was fully aware of the video when it came out. However, I don’t really listen to a lot of music and I don’t follow the music scene, so I only correctly identified 13 of the people singing solos (I didn’t really try to figure out who was in the background). There were a few people that I knew, but couldn’t remember their names, but there were a couple that I still don’t know who they are. James Ingram? Kim Carnes? Who are they?
On the other hand, I’m so bad at recognizing people I probably wouldn’t even know my own mother if I hadn’t seen her in 20 years…
I’m 37, of the soloists, I only two I did not recognize were James Ingram and Kim Carnes. I have no idea who Kim Carnes is. I had a tougher time with the background vocalists, but mainly because I can’t see what’s behind the big hair and sunglasses.
For example, I can not tell you who the woman is who’s standing in front of Harry Belafonte (I’m guessing one of the Pointer Sisters). At one point there’s a guy behind Kenny Rodgers I don’t recognize but at least you can see his whole face. I also never was able to recognize “the News” as in Huey Lewis and the News. Huey, I got no problem, but I have no idea what the other guys look like, so even though I know they are there,I have no idea not who’s who.
I recognized all the soloists, but who was the blonde woman who was with Cindy Lauper?
I will be 54 in a couple weeks.
Regards,
Shodan
I’m 46, and recognized almost everyone. I couldn’t name all the Jacksons (I got Tito and LaToya and Michael), and the only Soloist I didn’t recognize was James Ingram. And I still don’t really know who he is. I’m not a big R&B fan.
I made a list as I watched the Youtube video, without looking anyone up. Looks like I got 30:
Quincy Jones
Lionel Richie
Willie Nelson
Stevie Wonder
Cindy Lauper
Paul Simon
Kenny Rogers
Billy Joel
Tina Turner
Michael Jackson
Diana Ross
Dionne Warwick
Willie Nelson
Al Jarreau
Bruce Springsteen
Kenny Loggins
Steve Perry
Darryl Hall
Huey Lewis
Kim Carnes
Diana Ross
John Oates
Bob Dylan
Dan Ayckroyd
Harry Belafonte
Tito Jackson
Ray Charles
LaToya Jackson
Bette Midler
Waylon Jennings
It’s hard to believe it’s been 25 years. Going down the list, it looks like all but 3 of them are still alive, too.
The blonde woman with Cyndi Lauper was Kim Carnes. She had a big hit around that time with “Bette Davis Eyes”.
Here it is in quiz form at the site sporkle, which has many awesome time-wasting quizzes.
41, and a huge music geek when this was popular. With the exception of the black guy in the white jacket at 6:15, I was able to name everyone easily (even which Jackson sibling was which :)).