Jackson told Richie that he not only wanted to sing the song, but to help write it as well.Campbell, p. 109 The songwriting team originally included Wonder, but his time was constrained by his song-writing for the film The Woman in Red. So Jackson and Richie wrote "We Are the World" themselves at Hayvenhurst, the Jackson family home in Encino, California. They sought to write a song that would be easy to sing and memorable, yet still an anthem. For a week, the two spent every night working on lyrics and melodies in Jackson's bedroom. Jackson's older sister La Toya recounted the process in an interview with the U.S. celebrity news magazine People: "I'd go into the room while they were writing and it would be very quiet, which is odd, since Michael's usually very cheery when he works. It was very emotional for them." She also later said that Jackson wrote most of the lyricsTaraborrelli, p. 342 "but he's never felt it necessary to say that".
