Boy George spent Tuesday morning at the site of the Nova music festival massacre near Kibbutz Re’im in southern Israel, meeting survivors, former hostages and bereaved families a day before the first of two concerts in Tel Aviv. It is the most public step yet in a stance that, by his own account, has already cost him friendships and a long working relationship. He shows no sign of backing away from it.
“I woke up very early and saw everything. It shocked me,” he said at a press conference after the visit, according to Ynet. He also took aim at people who, as he put it, “had nothing to do with what happened” yet told him the attack was a lie.
How he got here
The trip grows directly out of a song. In late July, Boy George posted “We Will Dance Again” to his X account with a one-word caption, “Shalom.” The title borrows a phrase adopted by Nova survivors after the October 7, 2023 attack, in which more than 360 people were killed at the festival and dozens taken to Gaza. He has said the song was inspired by testimonies he saw at the Nova “06:29” exhibition in London.
The reaction was immediate and fierce. Euronews reported a wave of criticism on X, with users calling the track propaganda and accusing it of dismissing the civilian toll in Gaza. The outlet set the song’s position against findings from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and a UN independent commission, which it said had described Israel’s campaign as genocide. The song itself rejects that word.
Days later came the professional fallout. Boy George said he had parted ways with Tony Pontius, who had run his BGP label for several years, after Pontius refused to be involved with the track. In a post on X, reported by AAP, he quoted Pontius as saying “I want nothing to do with this song,” and said he replied that they were done. Pontius’s own side of the exchange has not been reported. Around the same time, Boy George withdrew from playing King Herod in a production of Jesus Christ Superstar, days before his run was due to begin.
Coverage has framed that split in slightly different ways. Some outlets described it as Boy George losing his label; the AAP account, based on his own post, has him ending the relationship himself after his label boss balked.
Three days in Israel
He landed on Saturday, October 31, and was met at the airport by Live Nation Israel’s Guy Besser and Sylvan Adams, president of the World Jewish Congress Israel region, who has acted as his host. The Times of Israel quoted him saying he came “out of a desire for us to dance, live and celebrate together again,” and that he felt he “had to speak up and tell everyone your story.” The paper also reported that he had struggled to find musicians willing to perform with him in Israel.
On Monday he was in Jerusalem, visiting the Western Wall and meeting President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog alongside former hostage Elkana Bohbot. There, he was frank about the personal price. “It cost me many friends, some of whom didn’t even say goodbye,” he told Herzog, according to Ynet. Some, he said, simply stopped answering. “I don’t regret what I did. Somebody had to do it.”
Tuesday’s visit to Re’im was private at first. He toured the site with Adams before a press conference moderated by Omer Shem Tov, a Nova survivor and former hostage, with Tribe of Nova representatives and festival co-founder Ofir Amir alongside. The Jerusalem Post reported him saying that Jewish friends in London no longer felt safe wearing a Star of David and that he “couldn’t just sit there and do nothing.” He added that writing the song “wasn’t about making my career better.”
Asked about critics in the music business, his answer was characteristically dry. “You mean the ones I’ve already blocked?” he said, per Ynet, adding that he does not feel part of the industry and works outside it.
What happens next
The first concert is Wednesday, November 4, at Menora Mivtachim Arena in Tel Aviv, with Israeli singer Ivri Lider as a guest. The Jerusalem Post reported that show as sold out. A second performance follows on Saturday, November 7, dedicated to the Nova community under the “We Will Dance Again” banner, with DJ Offer Nissim. At Boy George’s request, Adams and the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem, working with Live Nation Israel, donated 1,500 tickets for that night to survivors and bereaved families.
Adams, whose parents survived the Holocaust, praised him for coming “despite the threats and boycotts.” Those boycotts are the backdrop to the whole trip. Many artists have declined to play Israel during the war in Gaza, and Boy George has publicly rejected calls from the BDS movement to cancel.
That leaves him in an unusual position for a pop star of his generation. He is playing to sold-out rooms in Tel Aviv and receiving a head-of-state welcome, while at home he is losing friends and collaborators over the same song. He has made clear which of those matters more to him. Whether his fans follow him is the open question, and the shows this week will not settle it.
