Boy George has responded to accusations that sound technicians sabotaged his concert in Frankfurt, Germany, after he was forced to abandon the "car crash" gig partway through.
The 65-year-old singer performed just two songs of his set at an 80s concert at Waldstadion on Saturday before cutting the performance short.
The German news site The Jewish General posted on social media claiming that sound technicians kept turning up Boy George's in-ear monitors "louder and louder" until the singer cut his performance short. The tweet, translated from German, read: "Was Boy George sabotaged at a concert in Frankfurt? Technicians are said to have kept turning up his in-ear monitors louder and louder until the British pop star cut his performance short."
Boy George responds to sabotage claim
Boy George replied to the tweet, writing: "The truth is I will never know. Lesson learnt. Only work with your own sound people."
He continued: "The first song was a car crash which was weird because the sound was set earlier in the day so it shouldn't change. However, you allow for a bit of mess in any opening song but by song two I had asked them to turn down the sound but it just got louder and louder. I had to bow out but I did what I could and that's all that matters."
The Daily Mail has contacted a representative for Waldstadion for comment.
Backlash over pro-Israel song
The Frankfurt incident came days after Boy George vowed to fire band members who refuse to perform his controversial pro-Israel song, after he defended his use of AI in writing it. In a video posted on Instagram on Sunday, he addressed the backlash the new track, titled We Will Dance Again, has faced.
"I'm not lazy, the truth is if I tried to write We Will Dance Again with any musician, they would have gotten in my way," he said. "They would have said, 'you can't say that, that's too controversial. You can't say this, you can't say that.' Even now that the song is written, there are people in my band who are questioning whether they will perform it with me and those people will be fired."
Released on July 27, the song features an AI-generated reggae backing track and pro-Israel vocals. Its lyrics include the lines "You say Genocide, I say war" and "When you're attacked, that's what the army's for." The song addresses the October 7 attack at the Nova music festival, where Hamas killed 378 people and took 44 hostage. Israelis have since used the phrase "we will dance again," also the title of an acclaimed documentary about the attack, to spread hope.
Boy George defends using AI
Boy George, whose real name is George Alan O'Dowd, defended his use of artificial intelligence in the songwriting process. "I don't need gatekeepers and one of the great things about AI is it removes all the interference, all the human interference," he said. "I wrote that song, the lyrics are mine the melody is mine."
He compared the process to Elton John writing music while Bernie Taupin wrote lyrics, adding: "That's what I do with Culture Club that's what I do with all the people I work with because I don't play an instrument. That doesn't make me lazy or make me uncreative. In fact I think AI has made me more creative."
He said his music was a "totally different thing" to AI music "targeting" the charts, and urged fans to listen on his website. "If I tried to write We Will Dance Again with a human being, they would have gotten in my way. So thank god for AI," he added.
Jesus Christ Superstar exit
The song is not the only controversy Boy George, who is not Jewish, has faced since its release days ago. Earlier this week, his manager and best friend PK Kemsley broke his silence on the singer's exit from Jesus Christ Superstar amid the row over his support for Israel.
Kemsley, 58, announced last week that Boy George would no longer play King Herod in the production at the London Palladium. In a statement released on Tuesday, topped with a Star of David and a picture of George wearing a jacket adorned with a sequinned Star of David, Kemsley said the singer's "courage should be respected not attacked."
Kemsley, who is Jewish, wrote: "As Boy George's manager and his best friend, I want to be absolutely clear. I am completely behind him. For better for worse. Always..." His statement did not clarify whether producers asked George to pull out, whether actors refused to work with him, or whether the withdrawal was meant to stop the production becoming a target for hate mobs.
Boy George rose to fame in the 1980s as the androgynous-dressing frontman of Culture Club, which released hit singles including "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?" and "Karma Chameleon." The band had four UK top ten albums during the decade, including the chart-topping "Colour By Numbers."
