Do They Know it's Christmas? (2024 Ultimate Mix - Extended Version)

This is David Bowie I’ve been trying to think of shock tactics to present what I’ve been asked to present. But the figures themselves are really alarming. Over the next twelve months it’s projected that well over 360,000 children under the age of 4 will die in Ethiopia. That works out to something like 1000 children under 4 a day. Band Aid is a record that’s been made by a lot of recording artists and stars. The proceeds will all go to Ethiopia. It would be wonderful if you could all buy copies of this record over the next period, through Christmas. Thank you.

It’s Christmastime
And there’s no need to be afraid
At Christmastime
We let in light and we banish shade

It’s Christmastime
There’s no need to be afraid
At Christmastime
We let in light and we banish shade

And in our world of plenty
We can spread a smile of joy
Throw your arms around the world
At Christmastime

Ahhh ahhhh ahhhhh

But say a prayer

Dawn, and as the sun breaks through the piercing chill of night on the plains outside Korem, it lights up a biblical famine, now, in the 20th century.

There’s a world outside your window
And it’s a world of dread and fear

This place say workers here, is the closest place to hell on earth.

Feed the world

It’s Christmas
Nineteen Eighty Four

Spare a thought this yuletide for the deprived
If the table was turned would you survive?

You ain’t gotta feel guilt, just selfless
Give a little help to the helpless

Let them know it’s Christmastime.

Feed the world

People scramble in the dirt as they go for each individual grain of wheat
That may be the only food they’ve had for a fortnight or more.

Feed the world
Feed the world

This three year old girl was beyond any help unable to take food
Attached to a drip, but too late the drip was taken away
Only minutes later while we were filming she died
The mother had lost all her four children and the father
This mother and the baby she born four months ago, wrapped together in death

Feed the world

This place say workers here, is the closest place to hell on earth.

Spare a thought this yuletide for the deprived
If the table was turned would you survive?

You ain’t gotta feel guilt, just selfless
Give a little help to the helpless

Christmas day
Nineteen eighty-four

But say a prayer
But say a prayer
But say a prayer
Pray for the other ones

At Christmastime / At Christmastime
It’s hard but while you’re having fun
There’s a world outside your window
And it’s a world of dread and fear

Where the only water flowing is
The bitter sting of tears
And the Christmas bells that ring there
Are the clanging chimes of doom

Well tonight thank God it’s them instead of you
Well tonight thank God it’s them instead of you
Well tonight we’re reaching out and touching you

Bring peace and joy to everywhere this Christmas
The greatest gift we share each year is life

Why is comfort to be feared?
Why is to touch to be scared?

Do they know it’s Christmastime at all?

Here’s to you
Raise a glass to everyone
Here’s to them
Underneath that burning sun
Here’s to them
And all there is to come

Do they know it’s Christmastime?
Do they know it’s Christmastime?
Do they know it’s Christmastime at all?

Feed the world
Feed the world
Feed the world

Spare a thought this yuletide for the deprived
If the table was turned would you survive?

Feed the world

You ain’t gotta feel guilt, just selfless
Give a little help to the helpless

Feed the world
Let them know it’s Christmastime
Feed the world
Let them know it’s Christmastime
Feed the world
Feed the world
Let them know it’s Christmastime again

Just buy a copy and give it to a kid down the street. If you are having money problems yourself, then three or four of you get together and buy a copy, every little sale will help.

Italic – BBC journalist Michael Buerk
Italic Bold – David Bowie
Bold – Bono