Band Aid 30 becomes fastest-selling single of 2014 after one day of release

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Band Aid 30’s charity remake of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” is already the fastest-selling single of the year.

Bob Geldof’s song to help fight Ebola in West Africa has sold a massive 206,000 copies since it was officially released at 8am yesterday, according to Official Charts Company early sales data.

For comparison, the 1984 original shifted around 200,000 copies in two days, while Band Aid 20’s 2004 effort sold 297,000 copies in its first week.

Band Aid 30’s result marks the biggest start to the week of any single since Military Wives hit Christmas number one in 2011 with “Wherever You Are”.

It also far surpasses the former fastest-selling single of 2014, Clean Bandit’s “Rather Be”, which sold 163,000 copies in its opening week in January.

A host of big name acts including One Direction, Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding, Chris Martin, Sam Smith and Sinead O’Connor joined forces to record “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” in Notting Hill last weekend.

The track and its accompanying video premiered on The X Factor results show on Sunday, after Geldof introduced it with a poignant speech about its message.

“This thing could arrive here on the plane at any time,” he said of Ebola, “the most anti-human disease”.

“We can stop it and we will stop it and we will support the doctors and nurses who are going down there, and the government who are leading the world in this.”

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The song’s lyrics have been altered to address the Ebola crisis, with Bono’s famous line “Tonight thank god it’s them instead of you” being changed to “Tonight we’re reaching out and touching you”.

Not all artists welcomed Geldof’s new project, however, with rapper Fuse ODG turning down his Band Aid 30 invitation because of the song’s “negative” image of Africa and Damon Albarn suggesting that there are “problems with our idea of charity”.