The lessons Together For Palestine must learn from Live Aid
The world is in crisis, and music has always been good at responding. In July 1985, the music world made its stance clear with Live Aid. In 2025, the next iteration will be conducted as Together for Palestine, an event that must get right what Live Aid got wrong.
Throughout history, voices have been raised in song against global ills. More often than not, that comes in the form of a protest tune with pointed lyrics that get directly to the heart of the issue. But does that do anything? Does singing about an issue do literally anything to help it? Does it provide an apt solution, or merely comfort the singer into feeling like they’ve done something?
That was part of the reason why Bob Dylan turned away from protest writing, claiming, “I’ve never written a political song. Songs can’t save the world. I’ve gone through all that.” But in 1985, he said yes to Live Aid, clearly believing that the event, organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, could do something.
Given the power of the lineup, a lot of people clearly felt that. Split across Wembley Stadium and the John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the absolute all-stars of the era came out. The Rolling Stones, Queen, David Bowie, Elton John, Tom Petty, Eric Clapton, Madonna, The Beach Boys – the list goes on. It’s no wonder that the event made so much money, given the power of the artists involved, the scramble for tickets, and the fact that even watching the televised show at home was a profound experience.
In total, Live Aid is estimated to have raised around £150million for famine relief. But the issue is that the situation in Ethiopia wasn’t strictly a famine. The environmental crisis was weaponised by Ethiopian armed forces, as was the aid money that flooded in, facilitating what a Medicins San Frontieres panel deemed to be a genocide against civilians.
“Feed the world”, Band-Aid sang, but they should have been singing ‘feed your people’ directly to Mengistu Haile Mariam, the Ethiopian dictator who, during a civil war, was preventing aid from being shared around the country. While drought was obviously part of the issue, the situation in 1984 and 1985 was made far worse by civil unrest. This was an aspect that Live Aid and the broadcasting media bodies were keen to not get involved in.
Obviously, Brian Eno’s Together For Palestine is not doing that. The artists on the lineup and the messaging surrounding the show have already made it abundantly clear that they see the situation in Palestine as a genocide. So the problem here isn’t the event sitting on the fence in tricky political waters like Live Aid seemed to. The bigger issue will be after the fact, when they’ve done the show, raised the money, funded the aid, but then the aid can’t get in.
The starvation witnessed in Palestine right now is a direct consequence of aid blockades, according to Amnesty International. Aid surrounds them, but it can’t break through. There is also evidence that what is breaking through is being used to facilitate attacks on civilians or is purposefully used to cause a crowd control issue.
Brian Eno is a big name, big enough to pull off a Geldof-style triumph, but he’s not big enough to get Benjamin Netanyahu to stop starving a country. Thus, it is essential that the concerts convene with the proper charitable and aid bodies to ensure funds are deployed in a safe and ameliorating manner.
Back in 1985, Live Aid went all in. It raised an estimated £150m not only because of the powerful lineup, but also because it was impactful, outright showing photos and videos from the famine that shocked and upset the audience, moving them to respond. However, if the event wasn’t being honest about what was actually happening to these people, was it, in its own way, exploitative?
Is it ever fair to use the image of a real person in the gravest of circumstances, manipulate the reality to depict a more sanitised sense of trauma, to trick a privileged audience into coughing up funds?
The issue here is that there is no clear answer to the question of how Together For Palestine, or Paul Weller’s Gig for Gaza, will succeed where Live Aid morally failed in many ways. Raising money for Palestine is valid and necessary. Raising awareness of the truth of what is happening there while governments remain fearfully on the fence or even completely in denial is also valid and necessary.
But much like with Live Aid, which raised a considerable sum that never actually made all that much difference, 2025’s versions could run into the same issue, returning us to the age-old question: Can music ever truly change anything, or is it purely tokenistic? Together For Palestine has the unique opportunity to provide a definitive answer. But for it to deliver legitimate hope, it must be a success beyond the concert itself.
