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Bob Geldof Defends 'Do They Know It's Christmas' After Ed Sheeran Complaint: 'This Little Pop Song Has Kept Millions of People Alive'

Bob Geldof is defending 'Do They Know It’s Christmas?' and the charity work Band Aid has accomplished after facing criticism from Ed Sheeran and Fuse ODG. 'This little pop song has kept millions of people alive,' Geldof told ‘The Sunday Times.'

Explaining this decision, Sheeran said that in the past decade his “understanding of the narrative associated with this has changed.” He also cosigned a statement from Ghanian-English afrobeats musician Fuse ODG, who said he declined to participate in Band Aid’s 2014 rendition because he “recognised the harm initiatives like it inflict on Africa.” In response, Geldof told The Sunday Times that despite criticisms aimed at the song — which he co-wrote with Midge Ure in 1984 to raise awareness and funds for a famine in Ethiopia — its real-world impact takes precedence over what he called an “abstract wealthy-world argument.” Geldof also said that in today’s “fractious” world, “people have lost any ability to control events,” but when it comes to Band Aid’s work, “you have agency.”

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