The 40th anniversary version of “Do They Know It’s Christmas” is here — along with a video featuring clips of all the artists who’ve sung on the various iterations of the all-star Band Aid charity single over the years.
U2‘s Bono, Sting, Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, Duran Duran‘s Simon Le Bon, Paul Young, the late George Michael and the late Sinead O’Connor are all featured in the video, which begins and ends with a 1984 plea from the late David Bowie asking people to help by buying the record. In addition, the new song and video feature changes to many of the song’s problematic lyrics, which have earned it much criticism over the years.
The video and song also feature excerpts from a famous 1984 BBC News report about famine in Ethiopia that spurred Irish singer Bob Geldof to create the original Band Aid project and the Live Aid concerts. The original song initially raised millions for famine relief and, according to the BBC, the Band Aid Charitable Trust has raised nearly 150 million pounds to date.
Geldof, meanwhile, is defending the song after pop star Ed Sheeran recently wrote on Instagram that if he had known about the remix, he would have denied Geldof permission to use his vocals. He cited an Instagram Story by Ghanian-English musician Fuse ODG, in which Fuse wrote that such all-star charity projects “perpetuate damaging stereotypes.”
Geldof told The Times of London, “This little pop song has kept millions of people alive …why not keep doing that? … [T]here are 600 million hungry people in the world — 300 million are in Africa. We wish it were other but it is not. We can help some of them. That’s what we will continue to do.”
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