Nearly 40 years after it topped the UK Christmas pop chart and made tens of millions of kilos for charity, Band Aid’s charity anthem has come underneath recent hearth for its lyrics, which critics say perpetuate racist and patronising stereotypes of African individuals.
The tune, Do They Know It’s Christmas? was written and recorded by dozens of the UK’s hottest pop artists in response to a devastating famine occurring in Ethiopia on the time. It bought tens of millions, and inside a yr had raised £8million ($10.1million) for humanitarian reduction.
It additionally famously saved off the highest chart spot Last Christmas by Wham!, a tune which lastly reached the highest spot this yr. At the time, that tune’s author George Michael donated all its proceeds to the Band Aid fund.
But Band Aid’s lyrics haven’t aged nicely, with critics now lining as much as slam what author Indrajit Samarajiva calls “a terrible, racist song.”
He writes: “It’s not simply that these lyrics haven’t aged nicely. They have been by no means good in any respect.
“They take an ignorant and colonial attitude, more about making white people feel good than helping anyone.”
And he provides that that the tune makes sweeping references to Africa, with no particular reference to the struggling in Ethiopia:
“For occasion, the lyrics: ‘There won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas time. The biggest present they’ll get this yr is life.
‘Where nothing ever grows, no rain or rivers flow. Do they know it’s Christmastime in any respect?”
“I mean, this is all wrong. It does snow in Africa, although not a lot.”
Meanwhile, Nigerian Igbo British author Ije Teunissen-Oligboh has shared her discomfort of rising up within the UK on the time of the tune’s launch:
“The intention is a good one and must be lauded reasonably than criticised, however the execution was appalling and helped to perpetuate stereotypes and misinformation.
“The discomfort I felt as a child watching the single’s music video alongside my predominantly white friends in school assemblies was unnecessary and avoidable … I struggled to articulate to peers that the images they were seeing in the video weren’t an accurate representation of an entire continent.”
The tune has been re-recorded by totally different artists and launched a number of instances since 1984, with cash raised for various charitable efforts, and with the lyrics tweaked. But the unique stays the usual, and is far performed within the UK all through each festive season.
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