Lionel Richie Is Getting His Coronavirus “We Are The World” Remake — With American Idol Alumni

Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images

Lionel Richie Is Getting His Coronavirus “We Are The World” Remake — With American Idol Alumni

Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images

We all knew there was going to be a coronavirus relief “We Are The World” remake. It was pretty much inevitable. What we didn’t know when we were casting our fantasy coronavirus “We Are The World” is that instead of the expected all-star cast of celebs and pop stars, the modern update of Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson’s 1985 charity single features…an all star cast of American Idol alumni.

Richie is a judge on American Idol now. And Reuters reports reports that he and his fellow judges Katy Perry and Luke Bryan will perform “We Are The World” on ABC on Sunday alongside former Idol winners and stars like Fantasia, Jordin Sparks, Katharine McPhee, Kellie Pickler, Lauren Alaina, Ruben Studdard, Scotty McCreery, and the top 11 finalists from the current season.

Asked why he wanted to keep it in the American Idol family this time around, Richie told Billboard, “We’ve done the all-star cast and it was historic. These kids inspire me with their talent and they reflect the diversity of the world.” And yes, the lyrics will be exactly the same. “Exactly the lyrics I would have written for the new song are in the old song,” he told Jimmy Kimmel this week. “The lyrics work perfectly.”

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