Band Aid 20's version of Do They Know It's Christmas? has stormed to the top of the best-selling charts in Malta despite broad consensus that the original was better.

Hundreds of copies of the song have been sold in the eight days the single has been on release in Malta, record shops told The Times yesterday.

"It's certainly the best-selling single of the year. We need to order new stock," Bernard Borg of Exotique said.

The record is tipped to become this year's Christmas number one in the UK, as the original version did in 1984, as Britain's most celebrated musicians gathered to raise money for charity.

Proceeds from the sales are going towards relief for the Darfur region of Sudan and to combat HIV and AIDS across Africa.

So who is buying the single, selling at Lm2.95?

It appears that the vast majority are the same people that had bought the original 20 years ago.

"A lot of people that have walked in to buy the single said they also owned the original. In fact, I would say the majority of those buying Do They Know It's Christmas? are over 35; hardly any teenagers," Mr Borg said.

Despite featuring some of the UK's most celebrated pop stars, including Dido, Robbie Williams and The Darkness, many still associate the single with the 1980s when Sting, George Michael and Boy George lent their voice to the song.

Mr Borg said that at least 80 per cent of shoppers commented that they preferred the original but were buying the single because the money raised was going to Africa.

Many music critics lambasted Dizzee Rascal's rapping in the middle of the song and the guitar solo by Justin Hawkins, a thought echoed by Maltese music fans.

Mario Borg, 36, was among the first to buy the single. "I still consider Do They Know It's Christmas? as one of the finest tunes ever recorded. The original had more melody to it, though it's fantastic to hear Bono (U2 frontman) reprising his lyrics from the 1984 single."

The song is also available for download from iTunes, though it has also made its way to illegal sites to download for free.

Steered by Bob Geldof, the Band Aid Trust, which was set up 20 years ago, when the original single was released, handed out $144 million to famine relief projects across Africa between January 1985 and November 2004.