Band Aid 30's Do They Know It's Christmas? hits Number One on iTunes just hours after release
Sales of Bob Geldof's charity single featuring One Direction, Ellie Goulding, Ed Sheeran, Rita Ora and many more have "gone bonkers" on the internet
Band Aid 30's Do They Know It's Christmas? single in aid of ebola relief in West Africa has reached Number One in the iTunes chart in the UK just hours after being released, and according to organiser Bob Geldof raised a million pounds "within four or five minutes" of premiering on the X Factor on Sunday night.
The charity single, which features performances from One Direction, Ellie Goulding, Ed Sheeran, Rita Ora, U2's Bono and Queen's Roger Taylor, was recorded in one day on Saturday and produced overnight for its first play on the X Factor Results Show.
"Simon Cowell gave us five minutes of the show last night," Geldof told the Today programme on Radio 4. "Within four or five minutes of leaving the show we had a million quid. That's extraordinary.
"From what we're seeing now from iTunes it's gone bonkers. The pre-orders of the thing were ridiculous."
A reworked version of Geldof and Midge Ure's 1984 song in aid of Ethiopian famine relief, Do They Know It's Christmas? became available for pre-order immediately after its premiere on X Factor, and was released for 99p on iTunes at 8am this morning.
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A hard copy of the record will be available for £4 in three weeks time, and the track is now hotly tipped to take the Christmas Number One spot. Viewers were also invited to donate money to ebola relief by text on the show, which is understood to have also contribute to the large first wave of funds raised.
