TORONTO — The Band Aid 30 charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” is the year’s fastest-selling single in the UK and is raising funds for the fight against Ebola in West Africa — but not everyone is singing its praises.
“There’s a danger that this kind of appeal is slightly patronising,” British MP Malcolm Bruce told BBC Radio 4, “and gives the impression that Africa doesn’t have the capacity to do things for itself.”
Critics have also pointed out that many of those affected by Ebola are Muslim and, therefore, do not celebrate Christmas.
The remake of the 1984 song for famine relief in Ethiopia features stars like One Direction, Bono and Coldplay singer Chris Martin.
Emeli Sandé, one of only three black artists appearing on the song, said “a whole new song” should have been recorded.
“I apologise if the lyrics of the song have caused offence,” she wrote in an online statement.
Sandé said she and Angelique Kidjo “made and sang our own edits” to the lyrics but “unfortunately, none of these made the final cut.”
She added: “I wish the changes had been kept but that is out of my control.”
Singer Lily Allen said she refused to take part in the charity single because there is “something smug about it.”
Allen told The Mail on Sunday’s Event magazine she declined an invitation to be a part of the project because “I prefer to do my charitable bit by donating actual money and not being lumped in with a bunch of people like that.”
Afrobeat star Fuse ODG told the Guardian he turned down an invitation to be part of the single because he was “shocked and appalled” by the lyrics.
“I am sick of the whole concept of Africa — a resource-rich continent with unbridled potential — always being seen as diseased, infested and poverty-stricken.”
Blur singer Damon Albarn seemed to echo the sentiment.
“Having been to many countries and gotten to know many people, it always seems that we have only one view of it,” he told Channel 4 News.
“There are problems with our idea of charity, especially these things that suddenly balloon out of nothing and then create a media frenzy where some of that essential communication is lost, and it starts to feel like it’s a process where if you give money you solve the problem, and really sometimes giving money creates another problem.”
BELOW: Watch “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” by Band Aid 30.
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