Sunday, February 16, 2025

Horan and One Direction get the opening lines to charity single

A stellar line-up of some of the world’s top music artists were to be found at a recording studio in central London last Saturday, 15 November, with Mullingar’s Niall Horan front and centre for a new recording of the hit charity Christmas single, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”
Horan was joined by his One Direction band-mates, as well as a host of international music artists including Ireland’s own Sinead O’Connor, Bob Geldof and Bono as well as Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Ellie Goulding and Ed Sheeran, to name but a few.
The mammoth gathering of the music world was to record a new version of the track in response to the Ebola crisis threatening West Africa. The single was recorded almost thirty years to the day after the original track and this will be the fourth time the song has been released to support a charity drive at Christmas. “Do They Know it’s Christmas?” first smashed its way to the number one slot in 1988, released back then to raise money for the victims of Ethiopian famine.
The opening lines of the song, “It’s Christmas time, there’s no need to be afraid” are sung by Niall and band-mates Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Harry Styles.
Speaking to the world’s media before going into Sarm Studios in Notting Hill, Horan spoke of what it meant for him to be involved with Band Aid 30, the brainchild of Irish singer/songwriter Bob Geldof. “It’s a huge thing to get invited by Sir Bob to do this. It’s a real privilege. Hopefully it will get to number 1 and raise a lot of money for a really worthy cause,” said Horan.
The single was officially debuted on the X Factor results show on Sunday night, raising over €1 million within ten minutes of going on sale and reaching the number 1 position on the iTunes music charts hours later.
On its release, Bob Geldof pleaded with viewers to support the cause. “Buy five, buy ten, don’t get it for free online. This thing could arrive here on a plane at anytime. Mothers aren’t able to touch their babies when they’re dying. It doesn’t allow lovers to comfort each other, when husbands and wives can’t touch each other at their last moments. This is the most anti-human disease. But we can stop it, and we will stop it.”
Niall tweeted his delight at being part of the track. “It was the most amazing experience today at BandAid30,” he said to his followers on Twitter. “To be in a room with all those legends supporting a great cause was insane!”

GOAL CALLS FOR ACTION
Following the release of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” The CEO of Irish humanitarian charity, GOAL, Barry Andrew praised the work of Bob Geldof, and urged Niall and his fellow Irish artists who took part to visit West Africa.
“Bob Geldof is a true humanitarian. Ireland should be very proud of him and the other Irish stars involved in Band Aid 30,” said Mr Andrews. “Just as during the famine in Ethiopia 30 years ago, and on many other occasions of tragedy in Africa, he was not content to sit back and bemoan the situation regarding Ebola. Like the true humanitarian that he is, he decided to do something about it.
“Perhaps now it is time for one of the younger generation of stars to step forward and repeat what Geldof did three decades ago, and help put an end to the Ebola outbreak. They are certainly very welcome to visit the GOAL programmes in Sierra Leone,” said Mr. Andrews.

read_more
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Woohoo! Your subscription has been successful!

Subscribe to our newsletter

Keep up to date with all the latest news, offers and special announcements.

TOP STORIES

MORE STORIES