It's one of the best-known Christmas songs of the past few decades, but Band Aid's 'Do They Know It's Christmas' has been coming in for a bit of a battering on social media in recent days.
The song, which was first released in 1984 and has been through multiple reincarnations since, is being picked on for its supposedly dodgy lyrics, which people are only noticing now.
Political correctness gone mad, or do they have a point? See the discussion below...
BAND AID: there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas time!
AFRICA: actually we-
BAND AID: where nothing ever grows!
AFRICA: that's not the issue, colonisation-
BAND AID: no rain or rivers flow!
AFRICA: if you'd just listen
BONO: tonight thank god it's them
AFRICA: what the fu— A Muppet Christmas Carl (@TVsCarlKinsella) December 20, 2017
I actually listened to "do they know it's Christmas" and like... have you ever heard more white savior ideas in a song ever,
— Camryn Garrett (@dancingofpens) December 17, 2017
BAND AID: Do they know it's Christmas time?
AFRICA: Well thanks to Christian colonisers...— Jessnuts Roasting on an Open Fire (@bewkhewker) December 20, 2017
BAND AID: Do they know...
ETHIOPIA: We were Christian when you were still a minor Roman province and we celebrate it a few weeks later https://t.co/52lWJLCZIs— Alistair Davidson ðŸÂ?ž🌹ðŸÂ?´ó Â?§ó Â?¢ó Â?³ó Â?£ó Â?´ó Â?¿ (@moh_kohn) December 20, 2017
sounds horribly politically correct i know but band aid is actually such a ridiculous song for Africa, lyrics like 'where the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears', unbelievable when you stop and think about it properly
— Harry Quick (@HarryQuickk) December 16, 2017
Good Christ this take is annoying.
Yes, Band Aid is, no doubt, paternalistic. But the lyrics are about a famine caused by a drought (hence “no rain or river”) in the one country uncolonised (unless you call the ten year Italian occupation colonisation). https://t.co/oJzbH7CGBo— The Ghost of Cuckmas Past (@twlldun) December 20, 2017
I think we can all agree that the logical inconsistencies of a hastily assembled 33-year-old charity record are the real enemy.
— Dorian Lynskey (@Dorianlynskey) December 20, 2017
‘Tonight thank god it’s them instead of you’ in Band Aid is really not okay as a lyric though is it pic.twitter.com/TznkrVv0nA
— Katie Boden (@katie_boden) December 20, 2017
You actually think a charity song to raise money for a famine would say "thank God it's them instead of you" and mean it literally instead of using it as a hard hitting guilt trip for the selfish listener?
— Die Hard is the best Christmas film (@GhamGraham) December 20, 2017
The lyrics are pretty terrible, but the moment when Boy George sings “throw your arms around the world at Christmastime” just as the drums and bass kick in, or when Bono sings “tonight thank God it’s them instead of you”? It gets me every time.
— Grant Maxwell (@grantmaxwell) December 17, 2017