Three decades after Bob Geldof united the world’s biggest music stars to “feed the world” with his first Band Aid project, he’s at it again. Band Aid 30 brings together some of the biggest and best of the modern music scene for a remake of the original “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”
One Direction can be seen singing alongside U2’s Bono, who appeared in the original Band Aid project, as well as Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Rita Ora, Ed Sheeran, Emeli Sande, Sam Smith, Ellie Goulding, Seal, Sinead O’Connor, Bastille, Marcus Mumford, Robert Plant and many more.
This time, the target of the charity single is the Ebola outbreak in Africa. Geldoff appeared on the U.K.’s “X Factor” Sunday to premiere the single and its accompanying video, with a message about the inherent cruelty of the disease, which does not allow people to physically touch their dying loved ones.
While the chorus to “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” was left unchanged, Geldoff rewrote the verses to fit the new focus of the single and its associated charity drive. The video opens with challenging footage of victims of the disease before following the original’s format of showcasing the recording session with all of the musicians, which took place on November 15, 2014.
The single will be available to buy digitally on Monday. Physical discs of the new single will be available on Monday, Dec. 8. All of the proceeds raised will be going toward the fight against Ebola.