Band Aid 40: time to change the tune?

An era-spanning mega mix of the 1984 hit "Do They Know It's Christmas?" will be released this year to mark its 40th anniversary and to raise yet more money for charity.

The new track will blend vocals from different versions of the single, meaning stars such as George Michael, Sinead O'Connor, Bono and Harry Styles will sing "together".

But "not everybody is happy about it", said London's The Standard. The 40th anniversary remix has been "denounced" by Ed Sheeran, who claimed his voice had been used "without permission".

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Sheeran appeared on the 30th anniversary version of the track in 2014, but in an Instagram post the singer said his "understanding of the narrative associated" with the song had changed since then. Given the choice, he said, he "would have respectfully declined the use of my vocals".

Sheeran's comments have reignited a long-standing debate as to whether the 1984 song should remain a staple of the festive season. The Ghanaian-English Afrobeats star Fuse ODG said he turned down an invitation to appear on the 2014 release "because I recognised the harm initiatives like it inflict on Africa" and called for the BBC to cancel an upcoming documentary celebrating the single.

'Embarrassment of a song'

The original release of "Do They Know It's Christmas", by an all-star line-up of artists entitled Band Aid, was "masterminded" by Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof, who worked with Ultravox singer Midge Ure, said The Guardian.

In the last 40 years, it has been "praised by some as a triumph of charitable fundraising and festive songwriting", topping the charts and raising millions for famine relief in Ethiopia. However, in recent years it has also been "condemned" as "the most high-profile example of white saviourhood in pop".

Put simply, the festive hit "has not aged well", said Deadline in 2023. The lyrics, say critics, "perpetuate racist and patronising stereotypes of African people", and although later releases have "tweaked" the wording of some parts, the original version "remains the standard" for the airwaves every Christmas.

"Can we please cancel one awful Christmas song?", asked Ije Teunissen-Oligboh in The Independent in 2022. First of all, "they damn well do know it's Christmas". Every year, Britons from the African diaspora have to hear this "embarrassment of a song" and are "expected to smile, ignore it or even sing along".

While the intention of Geldof and Ure should undoubtedly be "lauded rather than criticised", ultimately "the execution was appalling and helped to perpetuate stereotypes and misinformation". At best, the song is "problematic"; at worst, it is "a racist and ignorant creation".

'Changed the charity sector'

For his part, Geldof is not inclined to take criticism of the hit on board, often giving it "short shrift", said The Standard. "This little pop song has kept hundreds of thousands if not millions of people alive", and because of it many can "sleep safer, warmer and cared for tonight", said Geldof in response to an article published on The Conversation.

The 40th anniversary of Band Aid will bring with it a new opportunity to raise money for charity this Christmas. Over the past four decades, it is believed the Band Aid Charitable Trust "has raised more than £140 million in total", said the BBC. The hit also spawned Live Aid, the 1985 concert, and Live 8, a similar project in 2005.

But in this sense, the original song and the Live Aid concert "were watershed moments for the wider charity industries", said Colin Alexander, senior lecturer in political communications at Nottingham Trent University, on The Conversation. "Fundraising became much more of a spectacle."

Celebrities now view charitable endorsements "as a key part of their star profile", while instances of "poverty porn have also become commonplace across the charity sector". This is ultimately harmful as it reduces the recipients of donations "to mere 'victims' rather than full humans looking for agency".

As the 40th anniversary gives rise to another re-examining of "the Band Aid format", said Alexander, we are "arguably less knowledgeable" about global suffering, "and in no better a position to put an end to it".