Boy George has clearly decided that his controversial AI-assisted ‘pro-Israel’ song We Will Dance Again is going to be the hill upon which he dies.
In the two weeks since he announced its existence, he’s had to pull out of a stint playing King Herod in a West End production of Jesus Christ Superstar, he’s parted company with his label manager who refused to release it and fallen out with Bandcamp, who also rejected it.
Now, the 65-year-old singer has said that he will fire any bandmates who refuse to play the song live with him.
And by this he seems to be including Culture Club members Roy Hay and Mikey Craig, who have worked with him on and off for over 35 years (drummer Jon Moss left the group in 2018).
Boy George announced this via Instagram, saying: “I’m not lazy. The truth is if I tried to write We Will Dance Again with any musician, they would have got in my way. They would have said: ‘Ooh you can’t say that, that’s too controversial, you can’t say this, you can’t say that’.
"Even now the song is written, there are people in my band who are questioning whether they’ll perform it with me. And those people will be fired.”
He added: “I don’t need gatekeepers, and one of the great things about AI is that it removes all the interference, all the human interference. You see every day on the internet people with opinions.
"First of all, I wrote that song, the lyrics are mine, the melody is mine. It’s a bit like Elton John writing the music and Bernie Taupin writing the lyrics. That’s what I do with Culture Club, that’s what I do with all the people I work with.
"Because I don’t play an instrument that doesn’t make me lazy or make me uncreative. In fact, I think AI has made me more creative.”
The song has been criticised for dismissing the genocide in Gaza, which since 2023 has seen over 75,000 people killed in the tiny Palestinian territory by Israeli military forces. It also appears to take aim at the many artists who have publicly supported the Palestinian cause over that time, with the lyrics ‘You condemn the Jews, with selective memory/ Musicians holding flags, mouthing like sheep/ Propaganda fuelled by the Internet feels so weak’.
Roy Hay and Mikey Craig have yet to make any statement about the song. Culture Club are set to embark on a UK arena tour in December with ABC and Haircut 100. The strapline to the tour is a cheery message that all three bands will be ‘Playing All The Songs You Want To Hear’.
We’ll know by then if any recognisable version of Culture Club is left to play their fondly-remembered hits.
