EXPLAINED: 3 - The Real Truth

Christmas number one contenders revealed: Will Wicked or Band Aid take top spot?

Last year Wham! claimed the top spot with Last Christmas.

Evening Standard · Nov 22, 2024

“Bono took me aside and asked if I was sure I wanted him to sing this line”: Bob Geldof remembers what the U2 singer said to him before he recorded his vocals on Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?

“I was able to say, this is not soggy liberalism; this is coded anger,” Geldof recalls

MusicRadar · Nov 20, 2024

Ed Sheeran, Fuse ODG: do they know they’re dead right about Band Aid? Africa needs more than a singalong

No wonder pop stars and others feel uneasy about the project. However well-intentioned, it now does more harm than good, says author and broadcaster Nels Abbey

The Guardian - UK · Nov 19, 2024

Ed Sheeran didn't give Band Aid 40 'approval' to use his vocals

Ed Sheeran has claimed Bob Geldof and Midge Ure didn't ask for his permission to use his vocals on the '2024 Ultimate Mix' of 'Do They Know It's Christmas?'.

BANG Premier · Nov 18, 2024

Ed Sheeran shares statement accusing Band Aid of ‘dehumanising Africans’

Sharing a separate statement by Ghanaian-British star Fuse ODG, the singer-songwriter said his understanding of the narrative around Band Aid’s controversial charity singles had ‘changed’

The Independent UK · Nov 18, 2024

Band Aid at 40: how the problematic Christmas hit changed the charity sector

In November 1984, BBC journalist Michael Buerk presented a series of dispatches from the small town of Korem in northern Ethiopia. He described the scenes he encountered as a famine of “biblical proportions” and that aid workers in the region had told him it was “the closest thing to hell…

The Conversation · Nov 14, 2024

"Still stands as a rebuke to that period in which it was first heard": Bob Geldof announces new remixed version of Do They Know It’s Christmas for single’s 40th anniversary

But how effective will it be as a fundraiser?

MusicRadar · Nov 13, 2024

Band Aid: New version of Do They Know It's Christmas? released for 40th anniversary

The 40th anniversary edition will feature a mix of voices from the three previous editions of the song in 1984, 2004, and 2014

Evening Standard · Nov 13, 2024

Band Aid back with new 40th anniversary mix of Do They Know It's Christmas?

Band Aid is back with the '2024 Ultimate Mix' to mark 40 years of the 'song that changed the world'.

BANG Premier · Nov 13, 2024

Do They Know It’s Christmas? The pop stars involved in the 2024 version

Organiser Sir Bob Geldof said the song serves as a rebuke to the Eighties notion that ‘greed is good’

The Independent UK · Nov 13, 2024