Ed Sheeran says Band Aid didn’t ask to re-use his vocals

Ed Sheeran says that Band Aid did not ask for permission to re-use his vocals on a new 40th anniversary version of Do They Know It’s Christmas?

Writing on Instagram, the star said he would have “respectfully” declined the request, citing a post by British-Ghanaian rapper Fuse ODG that criticised foreign aid in Africa.

Sheeran sang alongside Coldplay, Sinead O’Connor, Sam Smith, One Direction and Rita Ora on Band Aid 30 in 2014. A new mix, released next week, blends his vocals with those of Sting from the original 1984 version of the charity song.

“My approval wasn’t sought on this new Band Aid 40 release,” Sheeran said. “Had I had the choice I would have respectfully declined the use of my vocals.”

He continued: “A decade on and my understanding of the narrative associated with this has changed, eloquently explained by @fuseodg.

“This is just my personal stance, I’m hoping it’s a forward-looking one. Love to all x.”

In his post, Fuse ODG said he had turned down the invitation to take part in Band Aid 30 alongside Sheeran, 10 years ago.

“I refused to participate in Band Aid because I recognised the harm initiatives like it inflict on Africa,” he wrote.

“While they may generate sympathy and donations, they perpetuate damaging stereotypes that stifle Africa’s economic growth, tourism, and investment, ultimately costing the continent trillions and destroying its dignity, pride and identity.”

Speaking to BBC Radio 1’s Newsbeat, the musician said that Do They Know It’s Christmas perpetuates the idea that Africa is plagued by “famine and poverty”, which is “not the truth”.

When he first saw the Band Aid videos as a child, he said, the images were “so negative that I wanted to disassociate myself from being African because there was no sense of pride in it.”

The musician, whose real name is Nana Richard Abiona, added that he’d asked Bob Geldof to consider those concerns in 2014.

“All I said to him was, there’s a way to do things without destroying our collective pride. There’s a way to do things without it costing us in tourism, in investment, you know?

“We could make it more like a partnership – solidarity instead of charity.”

The BBC has asked Band Aid for a response to Sheeran and Fuse ODG’s comments.

The latest version of Do They Know It’s Christmas? was announced last week.

It will combine different versions of the charity single that have been recorded over the years, featuring stars such as Boy George, Harry Styles, George Michael, Sam Smith, the Sugababes, Bono, Bananarama, Robbie Williams, Thom Yorke, Rita Ora, Dizzee Rascal and Paul McCartney.

The new “ultimate mix” will premiere on British radio stations on the morning of 25 November, the 40th anniversary of the original song being recorded.

The charity single was conceived as a way to tackle the famine that devastated Ethiopia in 1984.

Over the years, the song’s lyrics have been criticised for their patronising portrayal of Africa as a barren land that needed rescuing by Western intervention.

This “ignorant and colonial attitude“, wrote Indrajit Samarajiva in 2023, was “more about making white people feel good than helping anyone”.

Over the weekend, Sir Bob Geldof – who organised and co-wrote Do They Know It’s Christmas? with Midge Ure – defended the song in response to an article published in The Conversation.

“This little pop song has kept hundreds of thousands if not millions of people alive,” he wrote.

“In fact, just today Band Aid has given hundreds of thousands of pounds to help those running from the mass slaughter in Sudan and enough cash to feed a further 8,000 children in the same affected areas of Ethiopia as 1984.

“Those exhausted women who weren’t raped and killed and their panicked children and any male over 10 who survived the massacres and those 8,000 Tigrayan children will sleep safer, warmer and cared for tonight because of that miraculous little record.

“We wish that it were other but it isn’t. ‘Colonial tropes’, my arse.”