Stars including One Direction and Bono have joined forces to record the new Band Aid song - as it was announced the Government will waive VAT on the charity single.
Some of the biggest names in British music including Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding and Rita Ora sing on the reworked version of Do They Know It's Christmas?
The new record marks the 30th anniversary of the song, originally put together to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia. It is expected to raise millions to ease Africa's ebola crisis.
As singers arrived at the studio in London's Notting Hill yesterday to record the track, Bob Geldof revealed George Osborne called him to reveal he would waive VAT on the single.
The move means 100% of the money raised by the song will go to charity. Geldof said: "I spoke to the Chancellor about five minutes ago and he agreed to forgo the VAT."
He added: "Amazing - that the Government has just said 'fine, keep the tax'.
"The record, it's a song, it's a track, but it's an event, and the next stage now is to turn this into a phenomenon like it was in the 80s, and the only way to do that is to get people to buy the thing.
"Spare me this free economy. Spare me Spotify and YouTube. There is a donate button on YouTube. Hit the donate button."
One Direction's Harry Styles was taking part in his second big charity performance in a matter of hours.
The 20-year-old performed with his band in EastEnders' Albert Square during the Children In Need television extravaganza on Friday.
Despite arriving an early hour, dozens of fans were there to greet Styles. He was swiftly followed by his bandmate Niall Horan, who said: "It's a privilege to be here."
Geldof said he was "blown away" by the stars' performance.
"It's beautiful, seriously. That is the hardest one to do because people know the song so they are worried they're going to mess it up and they didn't at all."
Chart-topping singer Rita Ora was the first to show up at the studio, despite fears commitments to BBC One talent show The Voice, which is filmed in Salford, would prevent her from taking part.
Sam Smith, Coldplay's Chris Martin and Emeli Sande also sang on the single, which features lyrics reworked to reflect the ebola crisis.
Organisers hope the track will be completed in time for its first public performance on The X Factor tonight.
The new lyrics appear in the second and third verses of the song and refer to the risks of cross-infection from comforting ebola victims.
Other artists taking part include Elbow, Seal, Jessie Ware, Sinead O'Connor and Clean Bandit.
U2 frontman Bono, who sang on the original recording, took a dig at rich countries that fail to honour aid pledges.
He said: "If every country had the values of Great Britain and kept the promises they make at these big G8 meetings and the like we wouldn't have to be standing here."
Geldof made a moving speech to all the performers before they recorded the chorus.
Sande said: "That really got everybody in the mind-frame that we needed to be in, to remind us it's fun but we're here for a really serious reason."
The 27-year-old said the contributors "sounded like a really powerful choir" and revealed it took about five takes to record the chorus.
Bookmaker Coral gave the single odds of 4-6 to be the Christmas No 1.
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