When Amelie Phung told her father she wanted to remake the song “We Are the World,” he was taken aback. Between Amelie and her younger sister, Alexandra, Amelie is the shier one of the two. She’s not one to perform in front of an audience, let along sing.
There isn’t much the sisters can’t do. Last April, Alexandra, made a trip to Augusta National as a finalist in the Drive, Chip and Putt contest where she placed sixth in the 7-9-year-old girls’ division. She’s already got an impressive golf resume, finishing 3rd at the 2018 U.S. Kids Golf Worlds at Pinehurst and 5th at the 2018 European Championship in Scotland.
She reached the 2019 event by winning regional qualifiers at Colonial Country Club, Bethpage and Winged Foot.
This year, she was scheduled to have company in Augusta as sister Amelie also qualified for the event.
The Phung sisters are also ranked nationally in chess.
Alexandra and Amelie, from Queens, N.Y., attend a gifted school in East Harlem called Tag Young Scholars. With East Harlem being one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City, Tam, their father, said they were exposed right away to how tough life can be.
Some of their classmates couldn’t afford lunch, Tam said. He added that triggered them to want to do a song to bring awareness to the problems in East Harlem. Tam said because he listens to a lot of older music, that inspired Amelie’s song choice.
She decided on “We Are the World,” which is owned by the Michael Jackson Family’s Trust and the Lionel Richie Family. After back and forth that included discussions on whether she could change the lyrics or not, the sides decided on giving Amelie a mechanical license to remake the 1985 hit. Amelie originally wanted to change the lyrics to fit more of the demographic in East Harlem.
“It was challenging because we’re not in the music business, we didn’t know where to go,” Tam said. “We kind of got the run-around a little bit and that’s why it took longer to finally get through. Lionel Richie is divorced, the song is owned 50 percent by the Jackson Trust and 50 percent by (Richie) and his wife. Since they are divorced, we had to deal with three parties. Eventually, Amelie has such good social skills, she kept it positive and stayed patient.”
After getting the license, Amelie faced another challenge.
Both Amelie and Alexandra qualified for the 2020 DCP national finals, which were put on hold until 2021. Alexandra scored a 105 in this year’s regional finals at TPC River Highlands to return to the national finals. Amelie qualified with a 136.
Living in New York City during winter months as a golfer isn’t ideal. Amelie and Alexandra had to split time with getting out on the course, going to school and producing a remake.
On days the temperature crept into the 50s, the duo practiced golf. On days it rained, it was a recording day. When the two had to practice, Tam said he would take his daughters to an indoor golf simulator, Five Iron, to train when they couldn’t get on the course. With the coronavirus rapidly picking up, that continued to overwhelm them.
With studios closing due to the coronavirus and still three weeks until the publish date, Amelie and her family had to resort to self-producing to make the song come together.
Throughout the production of the song, Amelie decided she wanted to make a bigger impact. Not just make the song, but get people involved. So she decided on turning it into a social media challenge. To participate, you sing a version of the chorus — or dance if you prefer not to sing — record it and post it using the #WeAreTheWorldChallenge.
Amelie hopes to invite Annika Sorenstam and Tiger Woods to complete the challenge, the duo’s favorite pros.
Amelie and Tam said they’ve already garnered a lot of interest to participate in the challenge, and have even started a website to collect donations.
Amelie released the song April 5, which would have been the day of the national finals. The family plans on donating all the money from sales to various organizations, including the Annika Foundation and the World Central Kitchen Foundation. The money to the Annika Foundation is to assist with COVID-19 efforts, the money to the World Central Kitchen Foundation has been allocated for their Chefs for America, free meals program, going toward the New York City region.
If the challenge goes viral, she hopes to donate money to the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation and the United Nations Foundation.
“I didn’t expect it to become this big,” Amelie said. “I expected it to be more of a home project, something that I take part in when I have time. Now that the pandemic has come around, now I have more time at home and it’s become a hobby for me and I’ve been able to put more effort into it.”
Because the Drive, Chip and Putt national finals were getting canceled, Amelie was able to dedicate more time to song’s remake. But releasing it on the day the national finals were scheduled was always the planned.
The song was released on iTunes for $0.99 and on Amazon Music and Spotify for streaming, on April 5.
“One of the reasons we picked the release in April was because we wanted it in line with Drive, Chip and Putt. She knew if she won Drive, Chip, and Putt, she would have more exposure,” Tam said. “She was thinking in her mind, nobody is going to care about this song, but if I won and got interviewed, they’re probably going to ask me and I’ll have a platform.”
While she won’t have that platform this year, she hopes to gain enough interest that it’s still being talked about a year later at the 2021 Drive, Chip and Putt national finals. If not, at least she used a small gesture to bring awareness to East Harlem and find a way to make a difference.
“This whole challenge is building me up to a point where, you know, I can say that I did something powerful and I’m helping the world out in a positive way,” Amelie said.
This year, the Phung sisters were looking forward to their return to Augusta National. This time Amelie was competing on the course as well, in the 12-13 age group.
“It means a lot to me because I never thought I would be able to go back on, but now I’m going to be up there with my sister by my side and my family watching on,” Amelie said earlier this year about getting to compete.
The two were looking forward to returning to Augusta together as competitors. But with the coronavirus pandemic taking over, their return to Augusta was put on hold.
While they both looked forward to competing in this year’s national finals, the year extension allowed them to dedicate more time to the remake.
The impact they leave with the We Are the World Challenge, they hope precedes them in the 2021 national finals.
“We’re proud of their golf achievements. … As a parent, I can’t be more proud,” Tam said of doing the challenge. “I’m very blessed.”