‘We are the world’: Political leaders singing their hearts out (VIDEO)

Bill Clinton displayed his singing abilities alongside teenage singing star Liel at the 80th birthday of Israeli PM Shimon Peres in 2003. However, the former US president struggled to remember the words to John Lennon’s classic song about peace. Instead he preferred to mumble beside Liel and 80 Israeli and Palestinian children.

Russian president Vladimir Putin gave an insight into his music taste at a charity event in 2010 when he tickled the ivories to the tune of Fats Domino hit ‘Blueberry Hill’. Putin, backed by a jazz band, also took to the mic during the performance.

As part of a charity challenge last year, Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie dueted together. The couple performed Jingle Bells acapella, with the PM’s wife nailing the high notes.

Controversy surrounded the South African leader’s singing during Nelson Mandela’s funeral. Leading mourners with an old prayer song, Zuma was criticized for choosing an apparently racially divisive song.

US president Obama insisted he wouldn’t be singing at this 2016 White House tribute to music legend Ray Charles. But as the beat took hold the president just couldn’t stop himself in what was the final ‘In Performance’ event of his tenure.

Boris Yeltsin sang Larionov’s ‘Kalinka’ at a historic ceremony marking the withdrawal of Russian troops from Germany in 1994. While also showing off his singing voice, a lively Yeltsin also had a go at conducting an orchestra.

NATO foreign ministers were the subject of ridicule when they joined hands and chose to sing ‘We are the world’ at a conference in Turkey.
Jackson’s 1980s pop song promoted peaceful living, something social media users pointed out was at odds with NATO’s involvement in military campaigns.

Fresh from a skiing accident, which saw her suffer a fractured pelvis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel managed to hobble onto a stage and sing Christmas carols with a group of school children.
The singalong was her first public appearance since the accident in Switzerland over the 2013 Christmas holidays.

In 2010, China’s premier Hu Jintao sang his own rendition of the famous song by Russian classical composer Vasily Solovyov Sedoi.