Ed Sheeran has said that Band Aid — the controversial charity supergroup that's spent decades raising money for health crises in Africa — didn't ask permission to reuse his vocals on the upcoming 40th anniversary version of "Do They Know It's Christmas?"
In a post on his Instagram story, Sheeran explained that he would have "respectfully declined" a request to include his vocals from the 2014 version (performed by an incarnation called Band Aid 30, featuring Sheeran, Jessie Ware, Sam Smith, Ellie Goulding and many more) after learning from African artists about the perceived harm perpetuated by the group.
"My approval wasn't sought on this new Band Aid 40 release and had I had the choice I would have respectfully declined the use of my vocals," Sheeran wrote. "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."
Sheeran pointed to a statement by Ghanaian-English singer and rapper Fuse ODG, in which he explained why he turned down an opportunity to contribute to the 2014 version. "I refused to participate in Band Aid because I recognized the harm initiatives like it inflict on Africa," Fuse ODG wrote.
As BBC News reports, Sheeran and Fuse ODG aren't the first artists in recent memory to criticize Band Aid's charity track. Last year, writer Indrajit Samarajiva described it as "a terrible, racist song" and said the lyrics take "an ignorant and colonial attitude, more about making white people feel good than helping anyone."
In a statement to The Conversation made over the weekend, Band Aid organizer and "Do They Know It's Christmas?" co-writer Bob Geldof defended the song, saying, "This little pop song has kept hundreds of thousands if not millions of people alive. 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."
Geldof continued, "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 over but it isn't. 'Colonial tropes,' my arse."
See Sheeran's story below.
