George Michael calling the move "way overdue". In November 1984, Michael joined other British and Irish pop stars of the era to form Band Aid, singing on the charity song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" for famine relief in Ethiopia. This single became the UK Christmas number one in December 1984, holding Michael's own song, "Last Christmas" by Wham!, at No. 2; Michael also donated the royalties for "Last Christmas" to Ethiopia. "Do They Know It's Christmas?" sold 3.75 million copies in the UK and became the biggest selling single in UK chart history, a title it held until 1997 when it
Band Aid 20 Bono and Paul McCartney were the only artists from the original Band Aid to lend their voices to Band Aid 20. There was a reported dispute over the line 'Well tonight thank God it's them, instead of you', which Bono sang on the original version. Justin Hawkins, of The Darkness, laid down a version of the line, as did Robbie Williams, but Bono insisted on re-recording his version, which was eventually used on the record. Travis lead singer Fran Healy, who played guitar on the recording, said, "It's dead exciting. When [the 1984 version] was first recorded, I was 11