Boy George’s pro-Israel song is a big deal

(RNS) — I first heard Culture Club and Boy George about 40 years ago. Their hit song was “Karma Chameleon,” and it fit. Boy George was that chameleon. His gender-bending androgyny embodied in-the-moment change — decades before that would become its own, well, culture club.

But to be honest, I had not spent much time thinking about it, or Boy George, since. Until this week, when Boy George released a new song, “We Will Dance Again.” It is a full-throated, passionate defense of Israel – the likes of which we have not heard since Bob Dylan’s “Neighborhood Bully.”

This is a big deal.

He released it directly on X , under the hashtag Shalom, skipping Spotify and Apple Music entirely. The title is a Hebrew phrase that has become an anthem of Israeli resilience since Oct. 7, 2023; it is also the name of a film, released in 2024, about the Nova music festival.

Boy George’s song has led to some not-unexpected controversy. Perhaps related, he dropped out of a production of “Jesus Christ Superstar” in the aftermath. And, he wrote on Threads that the song was created using AI . But he is undaunted.

#Shalom pic.twitter.com/0BfHIrThzO

— Boy George (@BoyGeorge) July 26, 2026…