Guests include Lisa Nandy MP, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Mariella Frostrup, Rory Stewart and Anand Menon. (Image: BBC)
A BBC journalist has fired back at outcry over Band Aid’s return, arguing the focus should be on the plight of people in Sudan.
40 years ago, Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof and Midge Ure created a supergroup of music stars to record epic charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas? which went on to sell over two million copies worldwide, raising more than $24 million for anti-famine efforts in Ethiopia.
Since then, the charity has released Band Aid II and a new version of the single with contemporary artists to commemorate the 20th, 30th, and now 40th anniversaries of the original.
The latest remix of the first three versions, Band Aid 40, has released but Shape of You singer amid claims that the song promotes “pity rather than partnership”.
Explaining his stance on the track last week, Sheeran shared a post by British-Ghanaian rapper Fuse ODG, who claims the song perpetuates “damaging stereotypes” that Africa is plagued by “famine and poverty”, which only Western assistance can remedy.
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Sheeran says he wasn’t happy with his vocals being used because the ‘narrative’ has changed since. (Image: Getty)
Asked about the row on ‘s , journalist and presenter Mariella Frostrup, who was one of the PRs working the original event, said: “I think that we’ve learnt alot, and I think there’s a huge case for investment in Africa, rather than charitable money being handed out.
The Labour government has said it will restore “development spending at the level of 0.7% per cent of gross national income as soon as fiscal circumstances allow” after it was cut to 0.5% in 2021 by the , citing the need for post-pandemic belt tightening.
Frostrup said: “I think we failed badly with the promise of 0.7% and then not living up to it, in terms of international development money.
“But ultimately, there’s a famine in Sudan at the moment, there are children starving to death.
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She said she had been to many of the places where that money had been invested “and kids come up and say they wouldn’t be alive” if it hadn’t been for what Geldof had done.
“And I’d rather his legacy than Ed Sheeran’s worrying what he’s going to say at dinner parties,” she added, “When actually there are children starving and they need the money.”
Regular host Fiona Bruce was also joined by secretary of state for Culture, Media and Sport, Lisa Nandy MP, former Tory Business secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg, former Cabinet minister Rory Stewart and Professor Anand Menon, director of the political research institute, UK in a Changing Europe.