RE’IM, Israel—British pop star Boy George toured the site of the Hamas massacre at the Nova music festival in southern Israel on Tuesday, which inspired his song “We Will Dance Again,” and said speaking out was simply the right thing to do as a human being.
“I saw what happened on Oct. 7, and it horrified me,” he recounted at a press event at the memorial site. “What horrified me more was hearing people who had no connection to what happened telling me it wasn’t true, that it was made up.”
He said he wrote the song after encountering the stories of survivors and families at an exhibition in London and hearing how fearful his Jewish friends there were. The song, he said, expressed what he felt deep inside.
“I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing,” he said. “I feel odd being thanked for doing what’s just normal.”
He said it was “quite shocking” and “a little bit predictable” to hear what other musicians were saying after Oct. 7, many of whom were highly critical of Israel or remained silent out of fear following the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
“Things become kinda trendy, and it gets easier to follow what other people are saying,” he said.
“I shouldn’t have to explain that being a human being is the right thing to do,” he told JNS. “Most people have lost their sense of reason.”
Moral clarity
“At a time when far too many international artists have chosen to boycott Israel or remain silent in the face of antisemitism, you chose to come,” said Sylvan Adams, president of the World Jewish Congress in Israel. “You used your voice and your international platform to stand with the Jewish people, despite the threats and boycotts. That takes courage. And moral clarity.”
The Culture Club frontman, known internationally for hits including “Karma Chameleon” and “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?,” will perform two concerts in Israel during his weeklong visit, including one for Nova survivors.
“When you take the stage, it will be a declaration that terror will never have the final word,” Adams said.
Wearing his trademark black top hat and dramatic eye makeup, the 65-year-old musician made his way slowly along the sandy paths of the Nova site in the Negev, now adorned with colorful photos of the more than 360 people murdered at the music festival. He heard eyewitness testimony and stopped to shake hands with visitors, including bereaved family members who frequent the memorial erected there.
“In today’s world it takes real courage to openly stand with Israel and the Jewish people and all over the world and even more courage to come to Israel to perform,” said Omer Shem-Tov, 24, who was abducted from the music festival during the Oct. 7 attack and held by Hamas in Gaza for 505 days.
Shem-Tov said he returned to the site on Tuesday for only the second time since his release from captivity and felt both an intense sense of darkness and sadness and an energy of light.
“You could have chosen to stay away, but you chose to come. We can really see how much you care and how much you love us all.”
