This Christmas season, Band Aid 30 is gearing up to spread holiday cheer and combat Ebola at the same time. Bob Geldof and Midge Ure founded Band Aid in 1984 to raise funds for people starving in Ethiopia with a group recording of the song “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” This year will feature a re-recording of this song, with appropriate lyric changes.
The list of artists for the re-recording will include Kyle Simmons, William Farquarson, Chris Wood, and Dan Smith of Bastille, Guy Garvey of Elbow, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Seal, Karl Hyde of Underworld, Roger Taylor of Queen, Joe Sugg, Zoe Sugg, and Alfie Deyes of YouTube fame, Grace Chatto and Neil Amin-Smith of Clean Bandit, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Niall Horan, and Harry Styles of One Direction, Olly Murs, Sinead O’Connor, Ellie Goulding, Jessie Ware, Ed Sheeran, Angelique Kidjo, Emeli Sande, Paloma Faith, Sam Smith, Rita Ora, and Bono, the only artist that participated in Band Aid 20.
Fuse ODG, Nana Richard Abiona, was invited to participate in the recording, but declined, saying, “I was sceptical because of the lyrics and the videos of the previous charity singles, and I worried that this would play into the constant negative portrayal of the continent of Africa in the west.”
Abiona lived in Ghana from the time he was an infant to age 11, and he has returned to Africa for Christmas for the past four years for the “sole purpose of peace and joy,” something not represented by the song’s lyrics, “There is no peace and joy in west Africa this Christmas.”
Abiona reported this to The Guardian, and revealed that he has performed in two countries who were affected by Ebola, and the profit from his next single will go toward helping the Ebola issue.
The song for Band Aid 30 was recorded on Nov. 15 at Sarm Studios in Notting Hill, London and released on Nov. 17, costing $2.19 on iTunes. The original record produced in 1984 sold 3.7 million copies, and Band Aid 30 is already predicted to be the number one selling single this Christmas season.
The song “Do They Know It’s Christmas” and its lyrics have received a lot of backlash, especially from Africans. An “open letter to Geldof and Band Aid artists” read “Do Africans know it’s Christmas? Could you be more condescending?” and “There is already an Ebola song produced in Africa by Africans which is a million times better than your song. You probably didn’t know that because you don’t really know anything about Africa do you?”
The song in reference here was recorded by Africans and is called “Africa Stop Ebola” and includes artists Tiken Jah Fakoly, Amadou and Mariam, Salif Keita, and Oumou Sangare. The group’s goal with this song is also to benefit the countries that were hit the hardest by the Ebola outbreak.
Other listeners take away just the opposite from this charity promoting song. In an iTunes customer review, user Michael65 said “It’s $2.19 out of your pocket. Why would you not spend it to help the people of West Africa who are suffering a horrible fate. They are doing something good with their fame and asking us to help. I for one am happy to pay for this song knowing where the money is going!”
