Band Aid 30 Vs the original Band Aid: With One Direction, Ed Sheeran and Chris Martin on board, which “Do they know it’s Christmas?” single has the most star power?
Bob Geldof and Midge Ure are putting the Band (Aid) back together.
30 years after they first gathered music superstars together to raise money for famine-hit Africa, they are recreating that success to help fund the fight against Ebola.
The lineup singing "Do they know its Christmas?" has evolved of course. One Direction, Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding and Chris Martin are taking to the microphones, replacing 80s stars such as David Bowie, Wham and Bananarama, while Bono reprises his role in the group, along with Geldof and Ure.
Music fans will get to hear the final results of yesterday's high profile recording session when the song premieres during Sunday's X Factor results show at 8pm on ITV and will then be available to buy on Monday morning.
As we wait to compare the new version with the hugely successful 1984 original, which one has the most impressive star lineup?
While sales of each artist would be a good indicator of star power, there is surprisingly no definitive ranking of global sales of each artist’s singles and albums across formats from records to downloads.
However, data from Spotify on the number of listens to each artist’s most popular five songs is as good an indicator as any of each musician's contemporary star power.
Although it may slightly favour more recent artists due to the popularity of newer songs as well as the younger demographic using Spotify, online streaming does also make older music and artists more accessible than in the past.
Here’s how they stack up against each other.
The extra star power on Band Aid 30 should help raise more than the already impressive amount of the original, which brought in £8m to fight famine in Ethiopia.
Chart notes: Where a single artist appears but became famous in a group, figures for the band have been used.