"Do They Know It's Christmas?"

"Do They Know It's Christmas?"

 is a melody written in 1984 by Weave Geldof and Midge Ure in

response to TV reports of the 1983–1985 starvation in Ethiopia. It was first recorded in a solitary day on 25 November 1984 by Bandage, a supergroup set up together by Geldof and Ure and comprising predominantly of the greatest English and Irish melodic acts at the time. The single was discharged in the Assembled Realm on 3 December 1984 and helped by significant attention it entered the UK Singles Outline at number one and remained there for five weeks, turning into the Christmas number one of 1984. The record turned into the quickest selling single in UK diagram history, selling a million duplicates in the primary week alone and passing 3,000,000 deals on the most recent day of 1984,[ while in transit to dislodging Wings' "Reflect of Kintyre" as the greatest selling single ever in the UK. It held this title until 1997 when it was overwhelmed by Elton John's "Light in the Breeze 1997", discharged in tribute to Diana, Princess of Ribs following her death. The first form of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" has offered 3.8 million duplicates in the UK to date.[6] In a UK-wide survey in December 2012, it was casted a ballot 6th on the ng Exceptional The Country's Preferred Christmas So

The tune was likewise a significant accomplishment around the globe, arriving at number one of every thirteen different nations outside the UK. In the US, the single missed the mark regarding the best ten in the Announcement Hot 100 because of an absence of airplay, yet it had sold an expected 2.5 million duplicates in the US by January 1985. Worldwide the single had sold 11.7 million duplicates by 1989. Geldof's wary expectation was that the single would raise £70,000 for Ethiopia, however "Do They Know It's Christmas?" raised £8 million inside a year of release.The single's overall accomplishment in bringing issues to light and budgetary alleviation for the casualties of the Ethiopian starvation drove the account of a few other philanthropy singles in the UK and in different nations, for example, "We Are the World" by USA for Africa. The melody likewise prompted different side project philanthropy occasions, for example, Entertainment, and the Live Guide show which would happen seven months after the fact in July 1985. 

"Do They Know It's Christmas?" was re-recorded multiple times: in 1989, 2004, and 2014. All the re-chronicles were likewise philanthropy records; the 1989 and 2004 forms additionally give cash to starvation help, while the 2014 rendition was utilized to raise assets for the Ebola emergency in West Africa. Each of the three of these renditions additionally arrived at number one in the UK, with the 1989 and 2004 forms likewise turning into the Christmas number ones for their separate years. The 2004 form of the tune was additionally a UK million vender, with 1.8 million duplicates sold.


background



The tune was enlivened by a progression of reports that Michael Buerk made for BBC TV news programs in 1984, which featured the starvation in Ethiopia that was occurring at the time. The BBC News group were the first to record the starvation, with Buerk's report on 23 October portraying it as "a scriptural starvation in the twentieth century" and "the nearest thing to hellfire on Earth". The reports stunned the UK, rousing the English individuals to immerse help organizations, for example, Spare the Kids, with gifts, and furthermore to carry the world's consideration regarding the emergency in Ethiopia. The Boomtown Rodents artist Bounce Geldof and his accomplice, TV moderator Paula Yates, viewed the 23 October report and were additionally profoundly influenced by it.

On 2 November Yates went from the couple's home in London to the Tyne Tees studio in Newcastle upon Tyne where she was introducing the week by week unrecorded music show The Cylinder. Among the demonstrations performing on that week's program were Ultravox, advancing their most prominent hits collection The Assortment. Ultravox's front man Midge Ure happened to talk Yates in the changing area after the show when Geldof called her. On finding that she was with Ure, an old companion of Geldof's (they had recently cooperated for philanthropy when they showed up at the 1981 advantage show The Mystery Cop's Ball in London), he requested to address Ure and disclosed to him that he needed to plan something for ease the enduring in Ethiopia. Ure promptly consented to help and the pair orchestrated to meet and talk about thoughts over lunch the next Monday, 5 November, rapidly arriving at the resolution that the best choice is make a philanthropy record.

Following their gathering, Geldof promptly set about enrolling other surely understood performers to partake on the record: 

I at that point rang Sting and he stated, better believe it, include me, and afterward [Simon] Le Bon, he just promptly said disclose to me the date and we'll clear the journal. That day I was passing by this old fashioned shop and who is remaining in there however Gary Kemp, pretty much to go off on visit to Japan. He said he was distraught for it also and to hold up 10 days till they [Spandau Ballet] got back in the nation... all of a sudden it hit me. I thought, 'Christ, we have the genuine top young men here', all the huge names in pop are all of a sudden prepared and ready... I knew then that we were off, and I simply chose to go for the remainder of the appearances and began to ring everybody up, requesting that they do it.


Further telephone calls from Geldof additionally verified guarantees of everyone engaged with the record's creation to give their administrations gratis, including a large portion of the UK music magazines which gave publicizing space in their productions to advance the single, Geldof's record name Phonogram who discharged the single, their parent organization PolyGram who conveyed it, and the craftsman Dwindle Blake who made the single's sleeve.