Christmas songs are generally cheerful and happy songs about the season. However, there is one Christmas song that completely deviates from this path and is very untraditional.

“Do They Know It’s Christmas?” is a holiday song that was released by the band Band Aid on December 25, 1984. Written by singer-songwriters Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, the song was created in response to a devastating famine that was on-going in the African country of Ethiopia from the years of 1983-1985.
The song itself has a cheery and upbeat tune; however, the lyrics provide words that are very nontraditional to normal Christmas songs.
The song’s opening lyrics have lines that attempt to call for unity and love during the Christmas season, lines such as “At Christmas time, we let in light and banish shade” and “In our world of plenty, we can spread a smile of joy.”
The next two choruses have lines that reference the crisis in Ethiopia, lines such as “Bring peace and joy this Christmas to West Africa.”
After a few other lines, the final line of the songs, and the most well-known line of the song, begins to replay several times before the song ends. The line is “Feed the world; let them know it’s Christmas time again.”
Despite the song completely veering off of traditional Christmas songs, it’s widely regarded as one of the best holiday songs out there.
When it was first released, it had sold nearly 2.5 million copies in the US. Worldwide, it sold nearly 11.7 million copies.
The song nearly reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 but fell short after the Christmas season ended.
Songwriter Bob Geldof had initially thought the song would only raise around 70,000 pounds for Ethiopian relief efforts; however, it raised an enormous 8 million pounds within 12 months of relief.
The song paints a clear picture that many people should look at. Those who are less fortunate in the holiday season aren’t thought about as much as others are.
This holiday season, pray for or help those who are less-fortunate, especially during this pandemic.