Bob Geldof got all the British and Irish stars of today (well, about 20% of them, isn’t it nice to know that there are hundreds of other incredibly talented pop stars and singers out there today who would probably contribute to a charity single should their timetables make time for it) got together to make a song under the name Band Aid 30. The supergroup, formed of oodles of people released a cover of Do They Know It’s Christmas with the mission of raising funds to go towards battling the Ebola crisis in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
A few lines have changed - the chorus goes ‘feed/feel/heal the world’ instead of ‘feed the world’ as it’s meant to denote how people, when suffering with Ebola, cannot be touched but we can still touch them with our generous donations. But some remain very similar - Seal huskily yells ‘No peace and joy this Christmas in West Africa’ as if it’s not just three out of about 14 countries that are directly affected by the Ebola outbreak. But of course, the point remains the same as the original Do They Know It’s Christmas – sing a song, raise awareness, make a lot of money for charity.
The assembled celebrities turned up for the photocall, sang their bits in the song, had some of it filmed for the final video, then went on their merry way, all happy in the knowledge that their contribution had got people buying the song and therefore donating to a good cause. One that, David Cameron says, will be matched by the UK government up to £5m.
By now no doubt you’ve all seen the video, but here are some observations you might not have noticed:
Sam Smith got to sing Boy George’s lines:
You can see Sam from one minute in on this video...
And Boy George from about 0.46 on this video:
It looks like we’re not the only people to notice a similarity between the cherub-faced blue-eyed soul singers.
Zayn Malik’s hair was apparently so bad he wouldn’t stop for the paps
One Direction’s Zayn Malik storms past the waiting fans and paparazzi straight into the studio – maybe he’s a bit under the weather, he has been missing from some One Direction promotional duties of late – or maybe he just doesn’t like his new curtains. But shit hair didn’t stop, well, the entire chorus of the original Band Aid stopping outside the studios to wave at the awaiting press – should it really have got in Zayn’s way?
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Chris Martin seems to be wearing a Blue Peter badge
We knew he was earnest, but this earnest?
Olly Murs uses his opportunity to, well, dick about
Olly larks around, dancing out of time to a song that calls more for powerful fist-pumping rather than awkward-man-being-awkward-in-a-club dancing. But there he is, dancing like a prick. Even though Bono’s there to fill that remit! On the plus side, Paloma Faith sticks to holding her headphones in place.
Jessie Ware might be the missing link between Ed Sheeran and Ellie Goulding
Ed Sheeran once wrote a mean song about Ellie Goulding called Don’t and it was all about how she mucked him about (with Niall Horan of One Direction of all people!) and left him feeling a little hurt and lonely. But something seems to have got them into the same room, be it charity, Bob Geldof’s nagging or just Jessie Ware. Who really * is * mates with Ed Sheeran – look at them, there’s more chumminess between them than between any of One Direction!
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Vloggers!
There were some vloggers in the video, too. Ones like Alfie Deyes and Zoella. Which sure must have been nice for them and brought the song a whole different (younger) audience. However, considering they're not famous for singing, their truer talents should have been utilised for maximum impact, like putting loads of bangles on their arms.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.