30 years ago, Bob Geldof organized the first charity supergroup (Band Aid) to record “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” — a highly successful song that raised more than $24,000,000 to “feed the world” during the famine in Ethiopia.
A new version of the song recorded over the weekend with some of the biggest-selling British pop acts, including One Direction, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, and Bono, is set to raise millions, this time for the Ebola crisis in West Africa.
The Song Has Already Gone Bonkers
Government officials confirmed they would waive all VAT taxes on the record, so that 100 percent of the money raised would go towards the cause.
Singers who gathered in the same studio as Band Aid’s first group included Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, Queen’s Roger Taylor, Elbow, Sinead O’Connor and Seal.
They sang the same iconic song, except with the lyrics tweaked to reflect the current Ebola virus, which the Irish musician-producer Geldof described as a “particularly pernicious illness because it renders humans untouchable.”
Like the original, the music video (below) ends on a high note, but it opens with a 15 second quiet, yet gruesome, scene of a gaunt Ebola victim being moved from her death bed.
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(WATCH the video below – READ more, w/ photos, at Daily Mail)
Band Aid 30 lyrics:
It’s Christmas time, and there’s no need to be afraid
At Christmas time, we let in light and banish shade
And in our world of plenty, we can spread a smile of joy
Throw your arms around the world
At Christmas time
But say a prayer, pray for the other ones
At Christmas time, it’s hard but while you’re having fun
There’s a world outside your window, and it’s a world of dread and fear
Where a kiss of love can kill you, and there’s death in every tear
And the Christmas bells that ring there are the clanging chimes of doom
Well tonight we’re reaching out and touching you
Bring peace and joy this Christmas to West Africa
A song of hope where there’s no hope tonight
Where to comfort is to fear – Where to touch is to be scared
How can they know it’s Christmas time at all
Here’s to you
Raise a glass to everyone
And here’s to them
And all their years to come
How do they know it’s Christmas time at all
Feed the world, let them know it’s Christmas time again
Feel the world, let them know it’s Christmas time again
Heal the world, let them know it’s Christmas time again