Da UK On-line Urban Magazine

Educating, Serving & Promoting Urban Communities

Supatrax offer a range of DJ Workshops for all ages and ranges of music.Photographing clubs Nationally and Internationally since 2001Supatrax can provide entertainment for youth and school events.Learn radio skills and get involved while providing content for Sticky RadioSupatrax TV are able to show young people how to make videos and creative photography skills

More Black in Band Aid 30 please . . .

BandAid100x100RE:IMI (Race Equality: In Music Industry) have sent an open letter to Bob Geldof following the productionof the recent 'Do they know it's Christmas' single by Band Aid 30. It's calls for more Black / African artists to be used in these songs.

The original Band Aid was a charity supergroup featuring mainly British and Irish musicians and recording artists. It was founded in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for anti-poverty efforts in Ethiopia by releasing the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" for the Christmas market that year - It smashed the charts and went straight to number 1. 

30 years later and it seems the profile of chart topping music in the UK music industry has changed but the profile of the line up hasn't. Does it mean that Black artists, and particularly those of African decent should collab and make their own track? 

 

Band Aid 30 does have a few Black artists - Seal, Rita Ora **[Correction - Rita Ora is of Albanian orgin]** and Emeli Sande, but compared to the recent 'We are the world 25' (2010) track that was produced for the Haiti disaster by US recording artists - There are far from an equal or substansial amount of Black recording artists in Band Aid 30.

Ed Sherran and Sam Smith are on the new Band Aid 30 track . . . Maybe Bob Geldof read the 1xtra Powerlist released earlier this year and chose his top Black influencial artists from that (We're tekkin the p**s! LOL!). See the track below and the letter in full underneath.

 

 

Below is a copy of the open letter:

RE:IMI OPEN LETTER RE: BAND AID 30

November 15 2014

RE:IMI (Race Equality: In Music Industry) notes that Bob Geldof is recording a new  'Do They Know It's Christmas?' single by Band Aid 30 this weekend, with profits going towards the ebola response in west Africa. Whilst we appreciate this initiative and the many less high profile efforts by African community organisations in Britain, it is a shame that 30 years on, Geldof, a man who seems to have a passion for Africa, has not widened his address book to include African artists.

To the best of our knowledge the only African included in the Band Aid 30 lineup is Emeli Sande. Is it that Geldof is not aware of the numerous African British artists with commercial success such as Tinie Tempah, Leona Lewis, Dizzee Rascal, Beverley Knight, Corrine Bailey Rae, Omar, Sade Adu, Alexandra Burke, to name a few who could have been included?

Whilst this is not a personal attack on Geldof, the reality is that for all the good intentions  of the Band Aid 30 project to help Africans, what many within the African British and black music communities see from the published lineup is another form of Eurocentrism - the European off to help the African, without engagement with African musicians in Britain, let alone on the African continent.

If the music industry is serious about engaging with diversity, particularly race equality, which is the reason RE:IMI has been formed, then that message needs to feed through more, and be reflected in a British collective of artists such as Band Aid 30. As it is, whilst Emeli Sande's place in the Band Aid 30 lineup is well-deserved, as she is one of Britain's top selling recoding artists, her inclusion as the only African could be perceived as a tokenistic effort.

We hope that this open letter comes to the attention of the organisers of the recording session in order to redress the situation for future efforts. It would be helpful if today's multi-cultural Britain was better represented in the Band Aid 30 lineup. 29 years on, perhaps lessons can still be learnt from  Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, and Quincy Jones, whose ‘We Are The World’ effort was performed by a truly multi-cultural collection of artists known as USA For Africa.

Outside of Band Aid 30 and the big charities and NGOs, there are initiatives led by Africans both here in Britain and on the African continent. In London, the newly formed collective Elbow Out Ebola has a conference at Zanzibar in south London on December 5 to find out where ebola-hit countries are at, and how Diasporan Africans can help, and community groups BTWSC and African Histories Revisited are organising  a dinner fundraiser on December 6 at Best Western Cumberland Hotel in Harrow in aid of Médecins Sans Frontières UK's ebola response.

Interestingly, a number of African artists on the continent have recorded songs to raise awareness about the ebola virus, but as the organisers or artists do not have the same profile or media access as Geldof, you've probably not of heard of them. One of the songs is  'Africa Stop Ebola', which features singers well-known on the so-called world music scene, such as Tiken Jah Fakoly, Amadou & Mariam, Salif Keita, Oumou Sangare, Kandia Kora, Mory Kante, and rapper Didier Awadi.

The song is a message about what people can do to help stop the spread of ebola in Africa, and is performed in French and local languages widely spoken across west Africa to ensure that the message is understood.

RE:IMI encourages Geldof, if he would like to help Africans, to engage with them and work with them rather than merely doing things for their benefit. We thank all the Band Aid 30 artists, but we are now wise to the rise in sales and profile which charity records, and concerts, provide.

Kwaku, RE:IMI co-ordinator
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
P O Box 14092, London NW10 1WL

Diane Dunkley, artist manager, RM2 Music
Dr Robbie Shilliam, lecturer, Queen Mary, University of London
Hugh Francis, chair UK Black Music Industry
Rikki Stein, artist manager, Fela Anikulapo Kuti Estate
Zita Holbourne, spoken word & visual artist, co-chair BARAC

Regardless of the track artists, we all agree it's for a good cause. Buy it now for only 99p from iTunes

 

Have your say and send your opinion to: info@supatrax or Twitter @supatrax

 

 

 

Supatrax Tweets

U want the £P's Fam?

Brum to Ibizia

Drum N Bass Father

Kisses for Breakfast

Nobody has to know

Invasion & Stay Fresh

PAYG & Heartless

Don't waste my time

Supatrax's Insta

Supatrax Social Media

BBC World News

Advertisments