Band Aid is back! Iconic charity single’s 40th Anniversary set to be marked with a new version featuring stars from George Michael and Sting to Harry Styles and Ed Sheeran

Band Aid returns with a brand new version to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the iconic charity song.

To celebrate 40 years of the song that changed the world, the Do They Know It’s Christmas? 2024 Ultimate Mix will be released on November 25, along with a special video.

Do they know it’s Christmas? was recorded on three separate occasions, Band Aid (1984), Band Aid 20 (2004) and Band Aid 30 (2014), featuring snapshots of some of music’s biggest stars, and how they have changed over the decades.

It has become one of the most iconic songs in pop history, having originally been created by Sir Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in an attempt to raise money for the fight against famine in Ethiopia.

To mark the occasion, producer Trevor Horn created the three recordings and, through extraordinary music production techniques, merged all the voices of those separate generations into one seamless song.

Unveiled on November 25, Band Aid – 2024 Ultimate Mix will see a young Sting singing alongside a young Ed Sheeran, a young Boy George with a young Sam Smith, a young George Michael alongside a young Harry Styles.

The young Bono with an older Bono, Chris Martin with Guy Garvey, the Sugababes and Bananarama, Seal and Sinead O’Connor, Rita Ora and Robbie Williams, Kool and the Gang and Underworld.

Other stars set to perform include Paul McCartney, Sting, John Taylor, Phil Collins, Roger Taylor, Paul Weller, Damon Albarn, Midge Ure, Johnny Greenwood, Gary Kemp and Justin Hawkins.

The song will be unveiled on Monday 25 November and will be played on UK breakfast radio that morning, with the video then revealed that evening.

The first version of Band Aid offered a snapshot of some of the biggest stars of the 1980s, with the likes of George Michael, Boy George, Spandau Ballet and Banarama.

A second recording of the song was released in 2004 and featured Noughties favorites such as Busted, Robbie Williams, Daniel Bedingfield, Snow Patrol and The Sugababes.

In 2014, the final version of Band Aid was released, and despite featuring the likes of One Direction, Olly Murs, Paloma Faith and Rita Ora, the lyrics were changed to reflect efforts to raise money for the Ebola response. outbreak in Africa.

The move came under fire from some critics, with some saying the lyrics are outdated and perpetuate negative stereotypes of African countries, which could damage their global image.

To celebrate 40 years of the song that changed the world, the Do They Know It’s Christmas? 2024 Ultimate Mix will be released on November 25th (2004 lineup pictured)

The song was originally created by Sir Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in an attempt to raise money for the fight against famine in Ethiopia, and went on to top the charts and raise millions.

Blur frontman Damon Albarn also appeared to criticize the project, saying, “Sometimes giving money creates another problem.”

He added, “Our perspective and our idea of ​​what helps and our idea [of] what is right and wrong is not necessarily shared by other cultures.”

Midge Ure, who co-wrote the charity single, revealed last year that Sir Bob Geldof originally claimed ‘It’s s***, but it’ll do’ as he played the tune to him on a toy keyboard.

The Boomtown Rats frontman also told Ure that he thought it sounded like the theme tune to the 1960s British police TV drama Z-Cars.

Ure, 69, said the pair then got to work on the project which has raised more than £200 million to help fight famine in Africa since its release in 1984.

The Ultravox singer told the How to be 60 podcast that they had come up with ‘ridiculous’ ways to make money, but eventually started making music.

He added: “We spent two hours coming up with ridiculous ways to raise some money, but in the end we succumbed to the fact that we were worthless at everything, except maybe writing a song.

‘We [thought] if we wrote a Christmas carol and got all our friends involved we could raise £100,000.

“Then luckily I had just finished building my studio and I sent Bob and a cassette of this little thing I did on a toy keyboard. He said, ‘Damn it, it sounds like Z-Cars, but it’ll work.’

“Then he came to mine with a right-handed guitar upside down because he’s left-handed, barely any strings on it, and started singing.

“I said, ‘Okay, let me,’ I recorded them on a cassette… and I spent four days playing all the instruments and making the arrangement for the song, while he knocked down all our friends to to come along and had a power in name and fan base, which was incredibly important.

“Then, of course, it all went crazy.”