Anti-Ebola “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” Is Happening With Bono, Sam Smith, Ellie Goulding, One Direction

Anti-Ebola “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” Is Happening With Bono, Sam Smith, Ellie Goulding, One Direction

A fourth version of the charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” by the rotating all-star cast known as Band Aid is in the works, this time to fight Ebola. The Hollywood Reporter reports that Bono, Ellie Goulding, One Direction, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Underworld, Sinead O’Connor, Bastille, and Elbow will participate in the new recording, which will be produced by Paul Epworth.

“Do They Know It’s Christmas?” which was penned by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, debuted 30 years ago with the goal of fighting hunger in Africa. The original single was co-produced by Ure and Trevor Horn. Two more versions were recorded later, also to fund famine relief: A 1989 effort produced by Pete Waterman and a 2004 version helmed by Nigel Godrich and Damon Albarn. Geldof shared a quote about the motivation for this project:

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.

Geldof also confirmed that Quincy Jones is organizing a similar project for 2015, the 30th anniversary of his own star-studded charity single “We Are The World.”

In other Geldof news, his band the Boomtown Rats reunited this year, and it appears he hasn’t yet gone to space.

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