40 years of "Live Aid": hope, hype and critical questions

"It's 12 noon in London and 7 a.m. in Philadelphia. And around the world, it's time for Live Aid!"

This legendary television announcement ushered in the greatest music spectacle of all time on July 13, 1985, uniting nearly two billion people from over 100 countries in front of their screens. Hosting a concert on two continents—long before the internet—and broadcasting it worldwide via satellite was a real challenge.

Live Aid was no ordinary concert: The goal was to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia, which was then suffering from a devastating drought. The stage featured the biggest pop and rock stars of the time, including Freddie Mercury , David Bowie , and Tina Turner , all performing for free.

The event took place simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. People around the world watched in rapt attention as Mercury roused the 72,000 fans at Wembley Stadium in London during the chorus of Queen's 1984 hit "Radio Ga Ga," as Bono of U2 leaped off the stage and danced with a teenage fan, and as Bob Geldof urged the audience to donate money. And to set the record straight with the oft-repeated Live Aid lore: Sir Bob never said, "Give us your damn money now." He was misquoted.

Rock 'n' Roll as a universal messenger of a message

The frontman of the Irish rock band "The Boomtown Rats" was the driving force behind the 16-hour music event. Geldof had seen a television report in 1984 about the suffering of starving people in Ethiopia and was deeply shocked. That same year, he and Scotsman Midge Ure of the band Ultravox wrote the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and brought together fellow British musicians for the recording. The success of the benefit single—now controversial due to its false portrayal of Africa—inspired the duo to expand their charitable work.

"We took up an issue that wasn't on the political agenda anywhere, and through the lingua franca of the planet—which is not English, but rock 'n' roll—we were able to address the plight of 30 million people dying of want in a world of plenty—on a continent 12 kilometers from ours," Geldof said in retrospect.

Geldof and his team pulled off the gigantic event in just twelve weeks. Ure later remarked to the British newspaper "The Guardian" that much of the Live Aid planning was based on instinct and goodwill rather than strategy or budget. The Live Aid concert laid the blueprint for later events such as Farm Aid (1985), Live 8 (2005), and Live Earth (2007).

"For Africa", but without Africans

Many Boomers and Generation Xers experienced Live Aid as a unique moment of global unity—at a time before the internet was a universally connected world. But in retrospect, the event also drew criticism: Although it was a benefit for Africa, not a single African artist performed at the mega-concert.

Women were also in the minority: Aside from Sade, Tina Turner, Madonna , and Patti LaBelle, the program was predominantly white and male-dominated. Geldof defended the selection of artists, arguing that they were asked to participate based on their popularity—after all, the goal was to generate as many donations as possible.

In 2005, Geldof organized " Live 8 " – a festival coinciding with the G8 summit, designed to bring together the heads of state and government of the eight major industrialized countries to "make poverty history." Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour was the only African participating, and Geldof once again relied on strong Western talent.

Andy Kershaw, one of the presenters at Live Aid in 1985, criticized this, saying: "This is outrageous and deeply complacent. They say, 'Don't neglect Africa' - but that's exactly what they're doing here."

Subsequently, the concert "Africa Calling" was organized, this time by Peter Gabriel. Under Youssou N'Dour's aegis, prominent African artists such as the Somali singer Maryam Mursal and the Beninese singer Angélique Kidjo performed.

Moky Makura, executive director of Africa No Filter ( an NGO that combats stereotypes about Africa, ed. ), was still a teenager when she saw the original concert. She wrote in the Guardian newspaper in 2023: "As a Nigerian born in Lagos and educated in the UK, it took me a moment to realize that the version of Africa Live Aid was selling to the world was very different from the one I grew up with."

Live Aid, she added, was the "unfortunate and unintended poster child" for a development approach in Africa that still drives much of the sector today: the desire to identify and solve the problems of poor countries.

White savior complex or turning point?

Bob Geldof received more than just praise for his commitment. Critics repeatedly accused him of having a "white savior complex" and portraying himself as a "white savior." His angry response: "People are dying there, damn it, because they don't have enough food, even though there's more than enough in the world. That's what it's about!"

A critical commentary in the Guardian in 2024 portrayed Live Aid as an event that reinforced "a condescending image of Africa as a continent desperate for and dependent on Western aid." Geldof called it "the biggest load of bullshit ever."

In fact, thanks to Live Aid, $127 million was raised for hunger relief—and the concert also had political impact. A recent documentary titled "Live Aid at 40: When Rock 'n Roll Took On The World" shows how Geldof and his Irish colleague Bono, through their tireless lobbying of the G8 leaders, finally succeeded in forgiving 18 of the world's poorest countries $40 billion in debt and promising to increase aid to developing countries by $50 billion per year until 2010.

Geldof, now 73, doubts on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Live Aid that the spirit of the concert can be replicated in the age of social media. "It's an isolating technology, unlike rock 'n' roll, which brings people together," he told the British music magazine NME.

He countered Elon Musk's recent statement that the great weakness of Western civilization is empathy with the words: "No, Elon, the glue of civilization is empathy. We are in the age where kindness is dying, and I oppose it."

Despite everything, the rocker remains hopeful: "You can change things, you can really change things... the individual is not powerless, and together you can really change things."

Adapted from English: Suzanne Cords