British musician Boy George said at a Tuesday press conference at the Nova music festival massacre site in Israel that he feels “odd being thanked for doing what’s just normal,” referring to the reception he has received.
The musician, who arrived Saturday, will be on stage Wednesday and Saturday in Tel Aviv performing his recently released song “We Will Dance Again,” a phrase that became the motto of Nova survivors of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre.
He said he wrote the song partly in response to anti-Israel comments from other musicians, many of whom he knows personally, and that the line that matters most to him is “If you’re ever confused/I stand with the Jews.”
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Sylvan Adams, president of World Jewish Congress-Israel, who arranged the concerts and the press conference, said 1,500 tickets to Saturday’s concert, dedicated to the Nova community, were made available to survivors and their families.
Nova survivor Omer Shem Tov, who was kidnapped by Hamas and held for 505 days, served as master of ceremonies and thanked Boy George for choosing to come to Israel.
Asked by The Jerusalem Post about his early fame, Boy George said he was “so culturally naive” at the time, then recalled growing up in southeast London in the 1970s, when the far-right National Front had a headquarters near his home.
He said he was handed National Front leaflets as a young punk rocker and wondered why the people distributing them thought he might be interested.
As a gay teenager who often felt like an outsider, he said, he has always felt connected to anyone who is “pushed out” and has never been a fan of bullies.
Asked at the press conference whether he was considering converting to Judaism, he said, “I’m far too lazy. I’ve heard it’s very difficult,” though he joked that having a Jewish boyfriend might change his mind.
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