That Eric Alper

You have to hand it to bingo, it’s a game which has been around for centuries and it still to this day manages to hold its own in the entertainment industry. A lot of bingo’s success is down to it embracing change and technology, moving with the times to appeal to an ever-changing audience. As a result, bingo has audiences that enjoy the excitement of bingo halls to now being able to play 24/7 online as well as via mobile apps with mFortune and other popular brands. Furthermore, we have also witnessed different variants of bingo born over the years too, with one type rapidly growing in popularity.

Musical bingo is a whole new way of playing one of the world’s best loved games, with many describing it as the “after-dark version” of the classic game. It works by replacing numbers on bingo cards with song titles instead, and this variant of the game has managed to have a big impact already.

While classic bingo provides a great interactive experience, which is also a superb social occasion, musical bingo manages to take things up to a whole new level, with it arguably being even more of an interactive attraction. The first instances of musical bingo took place in pubs and bars, ideal venues as they’re both well known for music. Pubs and bars are also known for attracting teams to take part in quizzes, which have been popular for years, and musical bingo therefore works in a very similar way and has a very similar effect.

It’s not just pubs and bars where musical bingo has managed to have an impact, but with nightclubs as well. It’s been known for musical bingo to take place in trendy clubs, with partygoers ticking off songs they hear on the cards provided throughout the night, with prizes such as drinks tokens and VIP entry up for grabs. Musical bingo manages to create totally interactive experiences, regardless of where it’s played, and that’s one of the reasons why its growth is continuing in an upward trajectory.

Furthermore, musical bingo is also proving popular at retirement homes as well, and while it does once again provide great entertainment. It’s also proving useful when it comes to improving memory capacity too. Classic bingo has been a long time favourite game to be played in senior’s homes around the world today, but by adding music to the equation, players are asked to recall the titles of songs they may not have heard for a good few years, which is incredibly beneficial.

You could say that bingo at times has needed fresh life breathing into it, and what better way than by introducing music into the mix? Music appeals to people of all ages, and so does fun, excitement, and the thought of winning. It’s hard to see the popularity of musical bingo waning, especially when it can be played in pubs, bars, nightclubs, retirement homes, and even at birthday parties and other social occasions. It’s an easy game to create and organise too, making it even better.

In 1985 Africa was going through a severe famine our world news was full of horrific scenes of starved people. American artists came to together and sang a powerful song that saw them raise over $60 million that went to several countries.

Writing and producing

Harry Belafonte and talent manager Ken Kragen had the idea to gather black artists to perform in a charity concert for Africa. They brought Lionel Richie to help write an original song and got Quincy Jones to agree to produce it, and he brought Michael Jackson.

The famous lyrics “We are the world, we are the children” are Lionel Richie’s work. The bulk of the song’s lyrics were Michael Jackson’s work. Quincy Jones recorded the music before recording the vocals.

The arrangement of the song and singers

The song has two stanzas, a chorus, and a rousing bridge. Seven soloists sang in the first verse, and three soloists brought in the second verse. Each of the soloists has unique voices and Quincy Jones who orchestrated their positions in the choir. He wrote everyone’s name on tape and stuck it to the floor.

The song is about 7 minutes long because it had to be the right length for radio play, yet still long enough to feature as many celebrity soloists as possible. Fortunately, the stars were respectful of Quincy Jones and ditched their demanding personalities before coming to record.

USA for Africa ran on a tight schedule and took a month to complete. All the stars came to Los Angeles in January, for the American Music Awards, and after the ceremonies, went to A&M Studios for the recordings, a period of roughly twelve hours.

Many Americans, corporate bodies like  Washington Lawn Mowing Services, colleges, universities among others were called upon to help raise money.

Trivia tidbits

Prince did not participate. He turned down the invitation to join on this charity song, but he contributed a song for the benefit album, called “4 The Tears In Your Eyes”.

Bruce Springsteen was the first non-white artist to join the project. His presence and enthusiastic involvement helped the other rock artists to follow suit.

Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson sat through several national anthems in a bid to create a song that would sound familiar to many people.

Cyndi Lauper’s jewelry caused a disturbance by jingling into the microphone.

How did the benefit song perform?

The single was released in March and sold out the first shipment of 800,000 singles. A month later, in April, the song was #1 for four weeks in the United States, and it was #1 for two weeks in the United Kingdom. The single rose to #1 on the R&B chart in May for two weeks.

Conclusion

“We Are The World” won Grammy awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. , and a remake of the charity song was made to give aid to Haiti. To this day, it is still an anthem for assisting stricken countries.