Just weeks after being announced, Band Aid Thirty's "Do They Know It's Christmas" has arrived. Over the weekend, UK music juggernauts such as One Direction, Sam Smith, Ellie Goulding, Bono, Chris Martin and Ed Sheeran teamed up with Bob Geldof to record a new version of the classic holiday anthem to help the Ebola crisis in Africa, and just 36 hours later the music video premiered on The X Factor.
The music video begins with a disturbing dichotomy. Documentary footage of Ebola aid workers in Africa in full hazmat attire life a frail, deceased human body from a soaked mattress, and then footage cuts to mega-celebrities like Rita Ora, Bono and Geldof passing by hordes of paparazzi to the recording studio to create "Do They Know It's Christmas."
Unlike the 1989 and 2004 versions of the single, the Band Aid Thirty incarnation of "Do They Know It's Christmas" keeps the musicality close to the original, though the lyrics have been tweaked to take out some of the less politically correct lines ("Well thank God tonight it's them instead of you") and make them reflect the current global health crisis of Ebola.
"There's a world outside your window and it's a world of dread and fear / Where a kiss can kill you / And there's death in every tear / And the Christmas bells they're ringing are the clanging chimes of doom / Well, tonight we're reaching out and touching you," the group sings.
Watch the new video for "Do They Know It's Christmas 2014" below:
Band Aid Thirty's version of "Do They Know It's Christmas" is the fourth reincarnation of the track, which was previously recorded in 1984, 1989 and 2004. All profits from digital downloads of this year's single will go toward the Band Aid trust to fight Ebola in Africa.
