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Do They Know It's Christmas?
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Do They Know It's Christmas?
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" is a charity song written in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. It was first recorded by Band Aid, a supergroup assembled by Geldof and Ure consisting of popular British and Irish musicians, in a single day at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, in November 1984.
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" was released in the UK on 7 December 1984. It entered the UK singles chart at number one, where it remained for five weeks, becoming Christmas number one. It sold a million copies in the first week, making it the fastest-selling single in UK chart history until Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997". UK sales passed three million by 1985. The song also reached number one in 13 other countries. In the US, it fell short of the top ten in the Billboard Hot 100, but sold an estimated 2.5 million copies by 1985. It had sold 11.7 million copies worldwide by 1989 and 3.8 million in the UK by 2017.
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" raised £8 million for Ethiopia within a year, far exceeding Geldof's hopes. The success inspired other charity singles, such as "We Are the World" (1985) by USA for Africa, and charity events such as Comic Relief and the 1985 Live Aid concert. Some critics and musicians said the song misrepresented Africa as barren or ignorant and that its lyrics contains factual inaccuracies; Ure said it was secondary to the purpose of raising money for the cause.
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" was rerecorded and rereleased with different musicians in 1989, 2004 and 2014. The 1989 and 2004 versions also raised funds for famine relief, while the 2014 version raised funds for the Ebola crisis in West Africa. All three reached number one in the UK, and the 1989 and 2004 versions were Christmas number ones. The 2004 version sold 1.8 million copies. A new mix, combining elements of the previous versions, was released in 2024 for the 40th anniversary.
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" was inspired by a series of reports made by the BBC journalist Michael Buerk in 1984, which drew attention to the famine in Ethiopia. The BBC News crew were the first to document the famine, with Buerk's report on 23 October describing it as "a biblical famine in the 20th century" and "the closest thing to hell on Earth". The report featured the nurse Claire Bertschinger, who had to choose which children would receive the limited amount of food and who were too sick to be saved. The reports shocked the UK, motivating the British people to inundate relief agencies, such as Save the Children, with donations. The Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof and his partner, the television presenter Paula Yates, were deeply affected by the broadcast. Geldof said about Bertschinger: "In her was vested the power of life and death. She had become godlike, and that is unbearable for anyone."
On 2 November, Yates was in the Tyne Tees studio in Newcastle upon Tyne, where she was presenting the weekly live music show The Tube. Among the acts performing were Ultravox, promoting their greatest hits album The Collection. The singer, Midge Ure, was chatting to Yates in the dressing room when Geldof called her. Geldof had worked with Ure at the 1981 charity benefit show The Secret Policeman's Ball. Geldof asked to speak to Ure and told him that he wanted to do something to alleviate the suffering in Ethiopia. He and Ure arranged to discuss ideas over lunch the following Monday, 5 November, and decided to make a charity record.
Geldof's and Ure's biggest challenge was to write a song that could be recorded and released in time for Christmas. To avoid having to pay royalties, which would diminish the amount raised for charity, they wrote an original song rather than record a cover version. Ure wrote what he felt was a Christmas-like melody on a portable keyboard. He sent a tape to Geldof, who sarcastically told him that it sounded like the theme to the television series Z-Cars.
Geldof came to Ure's house the next day and they worked on the song with Geldof on acoustic guitar. Geldof added lyrics based on a song he had originally written for the Boomtown Rats, which he had provisionally titled "It's My World". Ure recorded Geldof and his guitar and developed Geldof's ideas in his home studio, adding his own melody as a chorus. He was unable to improve on Geldof's lyrics, but changed the mention of "Africa" in "And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas time" to "Ethiopia", as Ure decided "Ethiopia" had too many syllables.
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Do They Know It's Christmas?
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" is a charity song written in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. It was first recorded by Band Aid, a supergroup assembled by Geldof and Ure consisting of popular British and Irish musicians, in a single day at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, in November 1984.
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" was released in the UK on 7 December 1984. It entered the UK singles chart at number one, where it remained for five weeks, becoming Christmas number one. It sold a million copies in the first week, making it the fastest-selling single in UK chart history until Elton John's "Candle in the Wind 1997". UK sales passed three million by 1985. The song also reached number one in 13 other countries. In the US, it fell short of the top ten in the Billboard Hot 100, but sold an estimated 2.5 million copies by 1985. It had sold 11.7 million copies worldwide by 1989 and 3.8 million in the UK by 2017.
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" raised £8 million for Ethiopia within a year, far exceeding Geldof's hopes. The success inspired other charity singles, such as "We Are the World" (1985) by USA for Africa, and charity events such as Comic Relief and the 1985 Live Aid concert. Some critics and musicians said the song misrepresented Africa as barren or ignorant and that its lyrics contains factual inaccuracies; Ure said it was secondary to the purpose of raising money for the cause.
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" was rerecorded and rereleased with different musicians in 1989, 2004 and 2014. The 1989 and 2004 versions also raised funds for famine relief, while the 2014 version raised funds for the Ebola crisis in West Africa. All three reached number one in the UK, and the 1989 and 2004 versions were Christmas number ones. The 2004 version sold 1.8 million copies. A new mix, combining elements of the previous versions, was released in 2024 for the 40th anniversary.
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" was inspired by a series of reports made by the BBC journalist Michael Buerk in 1984, which drew attention to the famine in Ethiopia. The BBC News crew were the first to document the famine, with Buerk's report on 23 October describing it as "a biblical famine in the 20th century" and "the closest thing to hell on Earth". The report featured the nurse Claire Bertschinger, who had to choose which children would receive the limited amount of food and who were too sick to be saved. The reports shocked the UK, motivating the British people to inundate relief agencies, such as Save the Children, with donations. The Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof and his partner, the television presenter Paula Yates, were deeply affected by the broadcast. Geldof said about Bertschinger: "In her was vested the power of life and death. She had become godlike, and that is unbearable for anyone."
On 2 November, Yates was in the Tyne Tees studio in Newcastle upon Tyne, where she was presenting the weekly live music show The Tube. Among the acts performing were Ultravox, promoting their greatest hits album The Collection. The singer, Midge Ure, was chatting to Yates in the dressing room when Geldof called her. Geldof had worked with Ure at the 1981 charity benefit show The Secret Policeman's Ball. Geldof asked to speak to Ure and told him that he wanted to do something to alleviate the suffering in Ethiopia. He and Ure arranged to discuss ideas over lunch the following Monday, 5 November, and decided to make a charity record.
Geldof's and Ure's biggest challenge was to write a song that could be recorded and released in time for Christmas. To avoid having to pay royalties, which would diminish the amount raised for charity, they wrote an original song rather than record a cover version. Ure wrote what he felt was a Christmas-like melody on a portable keyboard. He sent a tape to Geldof, who sarcastically told him that it sounded like the theme to the television series Z-Cars.
Geldof came to Ure's house the next day and they worked on the song with Geldof on acoustic guitar. Geldof added lyrics based on a song he had originally written for the Boomtown Rats, which he had provisionally titled "It's My World". Ure recorded Geldof and his guitar and developed Geldof's ideas in his home studio, adding his own melody as a chorus. He was unable to improve on Geldof's lyrics, but changed the mention of "Africa" in "And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas time" to "Ethiopia", as Ure decided "Ethiopia" had too many syllables.