Emeli Sande Talks Band Aid 30: “A Whole New Song Is Required”

Christina Lee | November 23, 2014 7:11 am
Band Aid 30's "Do They Know It's Christmas"
Watch the video starring Sam Smith, One Direction, Rita Ora and others.

Sir Bob Geldof has stressed that he only has good intentions behind each rewrite of Band Aid‘s charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas.” The songwriter does this because he has been criticized before for questionable lyrics, like when Bono sings “Well, tonight thank God it’s them instead of you” in the original 1984 edition. Some have also said that, while attempting to raise awareness on the ’80s drought or the ebola crisis, Band Aid’s portrayals of Africa reinforce negative stereotypes.

Last night (November 22), Emeli Sande became the latest to address recent criticism surrounding Band Aid 30, featuring One Direction, Sam Smith, Bono and herself. “Yes, I agree the lyric needs changing. In fact I feel a whole new song is required,” she says. She also reveals that she and genre-bending Beninese vocalist Angelique Kidjo wrote and sang suggested edits, Geldof ultimately left them out. See her Twitter statement in full below. 

While it’s unclear which Band Aid 30 lyric Sande is addressing, Fuse ODG has made recent headlines for criticizing a few of them. The rapper and London-Ghana transplant says that after reviewing the new version of “Do They Know It’s Christmas,” he decided not to participate in Band Aid 30.

“I pointed out to Geldof the lyrics I did not agree with, such as the lines ‘Where a kiss of love can kill you and there’s death in every tear,’ and ‘There is no peace and joy in west Africa this Christmas,’ he said in a Guardian op-ed. “For the past four years I have gone to Ghana at Christmas for the sole purpose of peace and joy. So for me to sing these lyrics would simply be a lie.”

Neither Sande nor Fuse ODG deny that the ebola crisis needed to be addressed, when the outbreak has killed more than 5,000 people. Both artists have also praised Geldof for his intentions.

But as they also seem to understand, the recent hoopla has led to what one tour operator called “an epidemic of ignorance” – this global fear that anyone out of Africa, period, has been in contact with the killer disease, when it has broken out in exactly three west African countries: Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

“I apologise if the lyrics of the song have caused offence,” Sande says. “I wish the changes had been kept but that is out of my control.”

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