George Michael to Sing From Beyond Grave in Epic New 40th Anniversary Version of Band Aid's 'Do They Know It's Christmas?'
George Michael will feature on the new Band Aid track alongside stars including Harry Styles.
Nov. 13 2024, Published 2:02 p.m. ET
George Michael will be teaming up with Harry Styles from beyond the grave to mark the 40th anniversary of Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas?
RadarOnline.com can reveal the late singer, who died in 2016, will appear in a special new release of the classic track, a remix of all three of the festive song's renditions
Michael passed away on Boxing Day in 2016.
That means the Wham! singer and one of the stars of the original 1984 version, will feature alongside the likes of Styles and his One Direction bandmates – including the late Liam Payne – who appeared in the third version in 2014.
A music insider told The Sun: "There was a lot of criticism when the last Band Aid single was recorded, so they decided to celebrate this anniversary differently.
"But it will be amazing to listen to, with so many different stars through the years seemingly collaborating with each other. It will still raise lots of money for charity."
The Wham! singer featured on the original Band Aid track in 1984.
The new track is being called the 2024 Ultimate Mix and will be released on streaming services on November 25.
Other acts who will be heard collaborating include Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Seal, Sinead O’Connor, Rita Ora and Robbie Williams, the latter of which appeared in the 2004 version.
Sir Bob Geldof, 73, and fellow Eighties star Midge Ure, 71, came up with the original in 1984 and it became the fastest-selling single in UK chart history.
The aim of the original track was to help charities working with starving children in Ethiopia.
Ure, who co-wrote the charity single, revealed last year Geldof originally claimed "It's s***, but it'll do", when he played him the tune on a toy keyboard.
Michael's vocals have been used on the new track called 2024 Ultimate Mix.
Ure said the pair then went to work on the track that has gone on to raise more than $250million to help fight famine in Africa since its release in 1984.
The Ultravox singer told the How to be 60 podcast they had thought of "ridiculous" ways to come up with money but settled on making music.
He added: "We spent two hours trying to think of ridiculous ways of trying to raise some money then finally succumbing to the fact we were rubbish at everything except maybe writing a song.
Do They Know It's Christmas?, featuring Michael, raised more than $250million.
"We (thought) if we wrote a Christmas song and got all of our friends involved, we could raise £100,000 ($130,000).
"Then luckily I had just finished building my studio and sent Bob and cassette of this little thing I did on a toy keyboard.
"Then he came over to mine with a right-handed guitar upside down because he's left-handed, hardly any strings on it, and started singing.
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"I said 'OK, just leave me', I recorded them on a cassette and I spent four days playing all the instruments and doing the arrangement for the song while he bludgeoned all our friends to come along and had a strength in name and fan base which was incredibly important.
"Then of course the whole thing went mad."
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