Boy George Faces Backlash After Releasing Pro-Israel Track

Photo Credit: Boy George performing with Culture Club by Paul Carless / CC by 2.0

Boy George has released an AI-assisted pro-Israel song, leading to intense backlash — not from the anti-AI camp, but from the anti-Israel camp.

Boy George previously said, “I would never turn my back on my Jewish friends,” and the Culture Club frontman has illustrated that point well with a new song defending Israel’s military campaign against Hamas. “We Will Dance Again” is an AI-assisted reggae anthem with such hot-button lyrics as “You say genocide, I say war / When you’re attacked, it’s what the army’s for.”

Needless to say, he’s drawn a heavy amount of backlash over the release, and not from the anti-AI crowd. The track flies against the grain of pro-Palestine sentiment, but as George makes quite clear in the chorus, “If you’re ever confused / I stand with the Jews.”

As critics note, the 80s pop hitmaker doesn’t have much to lose; he hasn’t had a hit since 2010 with his Mark Ronson collaboration, “Somebody to Love Me.” But it’s also not a surprising move for the musician, who was very outspoken in his support of Israel being allowed to perform at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, despite petitions floating around calling for their removal.

“Over the years, it’s been a really personal thing. It doesn’t mean that I don’t have compassion for Palestinians, it doesn’t mean that I agree with what’s going on in Israel, but I am always going to defend the people that I love,” he told The Jewish Chronicle last month. “I have a lot of Jewish friends, and there would never be a situation where I’d turn my back on them.”

Notably, George’s band Culture Club veered into protest territory in 1984 with “The War Song,” which charted at #17 and featured the evergreen line, “War is stupid / And people are stupid.” It’s also worth pointing out that noted social pariah and Smiths frontman Morrissey released the track “Israel” in 2017, with lines like “I can’t answer for what armies do / They are not you.”

However, that song came out a few years before the Hamas-led attack at the Gaza-Israel border during a music festival on October 7, 2023. Had Morrissey released that song today, it would undoubtedly be met with the same backlash that Boy George is experiencing today.