Overview

• Original performers including Bob Geldof, Midge Ure and Brian May attended a special showing of Just For One Day: The Live Aid Musical at London’s Shaftesbury Theatre on July 13, marking the concert’s 40th anniversary.
• The musical, which transferred from the Old Vic to the West End this May, features songs from Live Aid acts and donates 10 percent of ticket sales to the Band Aid Charitable Trust.
• BBC and CNN have aired extensive retrospectives, including seven-hour highlight programs, revealing new backstage footage and interviews with iconic artists.
• Observers are reevaluating Live Aid’s legacy of global philanthropy, highlighting its pioneering satellite broadcasts and the £114 million raised for Ethiopian famine relief.
• Critics and organizers are debating the original concert’s lack of African performers and questioning whether today’s fragmented media landscape could replicate its unprecedented global unity.