Bao Nguyen (‘The Greatest Night in Pop’) reveals how Sheila E. felt used while recording ‘We Are the World’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

When thinking of all the stories Bao Nguyen heard as he was making “The Greatest Night in Pop,” Nguyen found that he was particularly moved with how Sheila E. talked about her experiences during the recording of “We Are the World.” “She really opened herself up and said straightforwardly to us that she felt used in many ways. She thought that some of the people behind the song were using her to get to Prince and in the heat of everything that’s going on in the politics of trying to get the biggest names, that might have been the case,” he tells Gold Derby as part of our Meet the Experts: TV Documentary panel (watch the exclusive video interview above). It almost felt like she had been waiting to discuss this whole incident. “She had mentioned that that was the first time she ever shared that sentiment on camera and something that she’d been holding back for the last 40 years.”

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“The Greatest Night in Pop,” which is currently streaming on Netflix, explores the story of how the star-studded recording session of “We Are the World” came to be. The recording was used to help raise $80 million for humanitarian aid to Africa and was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie. In addition to Jackson and Richie, the recording also features Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Cyndi Lauper, Kenny Rogers and over 30 other voices as soloists and members of the chorus. As a single, the song would sell more than 20 million copies, become the eighth best-selling physical single of all time and win four Grammy Awards including Record and Song of the Year.

Even though Nguyen was only two-years-old when “We Are the World” was released in 1985, he does remember the song being played in his home and how it fit into how his parents viewed it all as part of becoming part of the country. “My parents were Vietnamese refugees who had just recently come over to America and one of the ways that they tried to assimilate into American culture and learn English was listening to American pop records.” These records would include several people who would appear on “We Are the World” including Richie and Rogers. “I just have fond memories of hearing these songs in the background. Growing up in many ways, American pop music, pop culture was this bridge between my parents’ Vietnamese background and my own upbringing as a young Asian-American boy.”