Some big named artists are coming together for the Band Aid project this year. Organized by Roomtown Rats’ Bob Geldof, current artists include: Bono, Sam Smith, Ellie Goulding, Sinead O’Connor, Bastille, Ed Sheeran, and One Direction with more to come. They will sing an updated rendition of “Do They Know It’s Christmas.” There are three previously recorded versions in 1984, 1989, and 2004. Those recordings were meant to raise money to help famine in Ethiopia but this updated version will be dedicated to raise awareness for the Ebola epidemic in Africa.
Geldof spoke at a press conference stating:
“For 30 years, we’ve been boring people to death about the great inequalities of the world, whereby 50 percent still live on two dollars a day. That’s disgraceful. It’s ridiculous, and it’s unnecessary. And what they were dying of in 1984 was of course hunger, but they died essentially because they were poor. We know we can contain Ebola; we have the doctors, the nurses, medicines and state systems. We have money. They’re dying again because they are extremely poor. That is radically unacceptable.”
It isn’t unheard of for musicians to come together for a charity event, but it happens for a reason. It tends to work. Tell us in the comments below who you would like to see in the song?
Also read about Operation Music Aid where musical instruments are used to help wounded veterans recover from war.
