People shocked Do They Know It’s Christmas song is still being played after actually paying attention to lyrics
We’ve all been there - singing idly to a tune without really taking in the contents of the lyrics.
It’s fun, light-hearted and it’s even better when the song you’re singing is a Christmas classic.
There’s so many to choose from, and they’re all very catchy. But Band Aid's 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' is probably one of the best out there.
However, bat-eared listeners have paid attention to the lyrics four decades on from its release, and many have realised that it isn't quite the song they thought it was.
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The hit was written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure back in 1984 in response to the famine in Ethiopia, East Africa, at the time, and starred the likes of George Michael, Boy George, Sting, Bono, and Simon Le Bon.
The famine tragically killed between 300,000 to 1.2 million people and over 200,000 children were orphaned as a result.
As a reminder of the hard work donators put in to raise funds, it was played every year and sold around 2.5 million copies by January 1985.
While Geldof initially wanted it to raise £70,000 for the people of Ethiopia, it actually raised £8 million within a year.
But the message it now spreads around the UK isn’t too great.
According to writer Indrajit Samarajiva, who blogged on Medium, it has 'ignorant' and 'racist' lyrics.
They wrote: "It’s not just that these lyrics haven’t aged well. They were never good at all. They take an ignorant and colonial attitude, more about making white people feel good than helping anyone."
Other lyrics have been called out too for being a generalised statement about the continent.
There’s: “There won't be snow in Africa this Christmas time, the greatest gift they'll get this year is life.”
And another part is: "Where nothing ever grows, No rain or rivers flow, Do they know it’s Christmas time at all?"
Samarajiva wrote: "I mean, this is all wrong. It does snow in Africa, although not a lot.
"Food does in fact grow on the continent, they do have water, and North Africa, as part of the Roman Empire, was celebrating Christmas centuries before England."
The Canadian Sri Lankan said that even if it was metaphorical, it’s rough.
Samarajiva said: "What does the metaphor communicate? That Africa is a desolate, dark place which white men have to get together and save?"
On this, social media users joined hands and explained that the song should no longer be played on the radios and TV stations around Christmas time.
One user said: "Please listen to the lyrics carefully and then complain to your radio station/supermarket [due to] explicit racism and lack of Christmas spirit."
A second said: "'Never really appreciated what a nasty, selfish and 'unchristian' lyric [that] lies within 'Do They Know It's Christmas'."
And a third said: "Out of all the Christmas songs to remain on the radio, how is it that 'Do They Know It's Christmas' hasn't been taken out of circulation."
While it did go on to raise an amazing amount of money, the lyrics are undoubtedbly questionable in today's day and age.
Britt Jones