British pop icon Boy George released a new song this week, voicing support for Israel and defending its military campaign against Hamas, marking one of the most explicitly pro-Israel statements yet made by a mainstream recording artist since October 7, 2023.
The track, titled “We Will Dance Again,” takes its name from the phrase Israelis and their supporters have used since the Nova music festival massacre to express hope and resilience. The Culture Club frontman posted the song on X and Instagram with the hashtag “Shalom,” alongside the Hebrew title, bypassing streaming platforms entirely. It quickly drew millions of views.
The song directly rejects the framing of Israel’s war against Hamas as genocide, casting it instead as a justified military response to the October 7 invasion, in which Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 people, including roughly 364 concertgoers at the Nova festival, and took some 40 hostages from the site alone. Boy George references the festival attack explicitly, describing the murder of young women there, and closes the song’s chorus with the line “I stand with the Jews.”
The song also takes direct aim at musicians who have publicly condemned Israel without similarly condemning Hamas, accusing them of “selective memory” and of amplifying propaganda while failing to reckon with what happened on October 7.
“You say genocide, I say war.
When you’re attacked, it’s what the army’s for
Does it get ugly? You bet it does.
When I know you wanna kill, every last one of us.
Every last one of us. Every last one of us.
You never mention October 7. Young girls raped against trees.
Murdered brutally. For the crime of dancing. You condemn the Jews.
With selective memory. Musicians holding flags, mouthing like sheep.
Propaganda fuelled by the internet. It feels so weak.
But trust me, we will dance again.
We will dance again.
We will dance again.
And there won’t be no war.
But if you’re ever confused, I stand with the Jews.
I don’t feel brave I just need to behave like a human.
But trust me, we will dance again.
We will dance again.
We will dance again.
And there will be no war.
But if you’re ever confused, I stand with the Jews.
I don’t feel brave I just need to behave like a human.
[In Hebrew] You say genocide, I say war, when they come to kill you.”
George Alan O’Dowd (born 14 June 1961), known professionally as Boy George, is a British musician, songwriter and DJ who rose to fame as the lead singer of the pop band Culture Club. He is also a solo artist and was the lead singer of the band Jesus Loves You.
Boy George, who is not Jewish, has a long public record of support for Israel and the Jewish community that predates this release by decades. He wore a shirt reading “Tarbut Aguda,” Hebrew for “culture association,” in a Culture Club music video, and has performed in Israel multiple times as both a solo artist and with the band. In 2020, he collaborated with Israeli musician Asaf Goren on a bilingual English-Hebrew track. In 2024, he was among more than 400 artists who signed an open letter supporting Israel’s inclusion in the Eurovision Song Contest.
That support carried into this year’s Eurovision, where Boy George and Italian artist Senhit represented San Marino in a contest several countries boycotted over Israel’s participation. Asked about the boycott at the time, he was direct about where he stood. “Are people asking me as a principled human being to turn my back on my Jewish friends?” he said. “It’s not going to happen; it’s never going to happen.” He added that he has worn the Star of David since the start of his career and feels deeply connected to the Jewish people, while noting he does not consider himself formally aligned with Israel as a state.
He has also shown up for the community closer to home. Boy George spoke at a London rally against antisemitism earlier this year, and after the April knife attack in Golders Green that left two Jewish men injured, he posted his support directly, saying the Jewish community needed to know it was not alone.
Reaction to the new song has split sharply online, with some users attacking him over the war in Gaza and others praising the release as a rare and public stand. One Instagram commenter wrote that he was “a ray of light in great darkness.” Supporters have also circulated images from the Nova festival memorial site alongside hopes that Boy George will perform in Israel again soon, something he said in February he intends to do.
