Boy George said on Friday, July 31, that he had parted company with Tony Pontius after deciding to release his pro-Israel track, We Will Dance Again. He said Pontius, who had run BGP for a number of years, was clear that he wanted nothing to do with the song, and that was enough for him to end the working relationship.
The split comes just days after Boy George announced he would no longer appear as King Herod in the upcoming London revival of Jesus Christ Superstar. That move and the label fallout have pushed the 65-year-old singer back into the center of a debate over where his personal convictions end and his career choices begin.
Boy George said he wanted the song to reach a wider audience, but it had only been released on X, Instagram and Threads, with no major streaming service carrying it at the time of the report. It was available on Bandcamp, and he said in a video that he would rerecord it himself soon. The song was created with the help of AI, which added another layer to the reaction around it.
The controversy is not only about the music. Boy George said he was losing a few people from his life because of his decision to stand up for his Jewish friends, even as the song’s lyrics drew criticism for lines including, “You say genocide, I say war/ When you’re attacked, that’s what the army’s for.” He also wrote, “You never mention Oct. 7/ Young girls raped against trees/ Murdered brutally/ For the crime of dancing.”
That title also matches a 2024 documentary about the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack at the Nova Music festival in Israel, which is one reason the release drew attention so quickly. For Boy George, the immediate question is not whether the dispute has faded. It is whether BGP will formally confirm the split and whether he can relaunch the song on his own terms without another break in his public life.
