Boy George says the price of playing Israel is now arriving in his inbox and on the street. In an interview aired Saturday on Israel’s Channel 12, the former Culture Club frontman said he has received threats and seen his pictures and concert posters defaced ahead of two November shows in Tel Aviv, according to the Times of Israel.
“I’ve had threats,” he told the broadcaster, adding that his critics, in his view, do not “look like peace.” He also revealed that, with less than a month to go, he is still putting a band together. “I’m trying to find people who are brave enough to come,” he said.
How a song became a standoff
The current row traces back to late July, when George released “We Will Dance Again,” a song about the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack and the Nova music festival massacre. He has said he wrote it after visiting the Nova exhibition in London and meeting survivors and bereaved families, and in the Channel 12 interview he called it an emotional statement rather than a political one. Critics did not hear it that way. Haaretz characterized the track as a defense of Israel’s war in Gaza, highlighting the lyric “You said genocide, I say war.”
The fallout came quickly. By August, Jewish News reported that George had said in an Instagram video that band members who refused to perform the song “will be fired.” The same report said he had split with his label manager, Tony Pontius, whom he called “gutless,” and had withdrawn from a planned role as King Herod in a West End production of Jesus Christ Superstar. George has said an NDA prevents him from explaining that exit, ynetnews reports. The song was also pulled from Bandcamp; George has suggested that was because it was made with the help of AI, and it now sits on another platform.
Through all of it, he has insisted his position is narrower than his detractors claim. “I never, ever said I didn’t care about Palestine,” he told Channel 12. Back in August he also said he was devastated by the loss of innocent lives on both sides and called for peace, per Jewish News.
Defying the boycott
The Tel Aviv dates turned the song into something more concrete. Live Nation Israel announced on September 22 that George would play Menora Mivtachim Arena on November 4, Israel Hayom reported, noting that many international acts have been steering clear of Israel amid calls for a cultural boycott. That show has since sold out, according to the Times of Israel, and a second night was added for November 7. The Jerusalem Post reported that the second concert, also titled “We Will Dance Again,” is dedicated to Nova survivors and their families.
George is no stranger to boycott pressure. Ynet notes that when Culture Club played Tel Aviv in 2017, Roger Waters, one of the most prominent backers of the cultural boycott, was among those who contacted him. George’s answer then, he says: “I just threw the letter in the trash.” He added that David Gilmour, Waters’ former Pink Floyd bandmate, sends him positive messages.
The context in 2026 is harsher. Both the Times of Israel and ynet frame George’s stand against this year’s other music-industry flashpoints over Gaza, including the furor over Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s U.S. stadium dates after pro-Palestinian remarks. In the Channel 12 interview, George took aim at longtime peers who distanced themselves from him, quipping that “their political views are Dolce & Gabbana.” He also suggested younger musicians are under pressure from the circles they move in.
Two accounts of the same fight
There is a notable difference in tone between George’s recent interviews. In the ynet feature, published the same day, he played down the hostility, saying that “when you go out into the real world, people aren’t hostile,” and that the only answer is to keep working. The Channel 12 interview, as reported by the Times of Israel, is darker: explicit threats, vandalized posters, and a search for musicians willing to travel. Neither outlet reported any detail of who made the threats, and George did not say whether he had reported them to police.
He was also candid that the trip itself will not be routine. “It would be naive to say it’s just another show,” he told ynet, adding that he did not know how he would feel when he arrived.
What happens next
The immediate question is the band. With the first show set for November 4, George has said publicly that he is still recruiting, and has framed it as a test of nerve for the people he asks. Whether longtime Culture Club members will be on stage has not been confirmed in any of the reports.
What is clear is that George has no intention of backing down. He has parted ways with his label manager, stepped away from a stage role and, by his own account, lost some old friends since releasing this song, and he is now saying on Israeli television that he has been threatened as well. Both Tel Aviv dates remain on the calendar.
