Israel-Gaza conflict framing sparks backlash over Boy George’s AI-assisted single
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Boy George has released a reggae track titled 'We Will Dance Again', made with the help of artificial intelligence, that rejects descriptions of Israel's military campaign in Gaza as genocide and instead frames it as a justified response to the Hamas-led attack on the Nova music festival on 7 October 2023. The song also criticises musicians and public figures who have voiced support for Palestinians, describing their stance as propaganda, and its release has drawn public criticism from figures within the music industry over its framing of the conflict.
The track's opening line, "You say genocide, I say war", directly contests findings by a United Nations Commission and Amnesty International, both of which concluded Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza; Israel rejects this characterisation and maintains its campaign is self-defence following the deaths of 344 civilians and 34 security personnel, and the abduction of 44 hostages, on 7 October. Boy George said on social media that he used AI because he "would struggle to write this with a human", calling it "AI for good". Martyn Ware of The Human League and Heaven 17 branded the song "pro-genocide, anti-Palestinian" propaganda, while journalist Mahdi Hemmat argued that calling the situation "war" understates the scale of civilian and infrastructure damage in Gaza.
- Boy George released an AI-assisted pro-Israel reggae song, 'We Will Dance Again'
- Lyrics reject "genocide" label for Gaza campaign, citing October 2023 Nova attack
- Musicians including Martyn Ware criticised the song as anti-Palestinian propaganda
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Boy George, the singer best known for fronting Culture Club in the 1980s, has released a new track called "We Will Dance Again", which he says was made with help from artificial intelligence tools. The song addresses the war between Israel and Hamas, which began after Hamas-led fighters attacked the Nova music festival in Israel in October 2023, and it pushes back against descriptions of Israel's military campaign in Gaza as genocide.
The release has drawn criticism from other musicians and commentators, including Martyn Ware, a founding member of the band The Human League, and journalist Mahdi Hemmat, who have disputed the song's portrayal of the conflict and the damage caused in Gaza. Boy George has defended the track, saying he holds an unpopular view but believes open societies should allow space for different opinions.
The story touches on several ongoing debates beyond the song itself: how public figures should discuss the Israel-Gaza war, the growing use of AI in music-making, and where artists' free expression sits against accusations of one-sided or misleading framing of a highly contested conflict.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Supporters of the song would argue that artists have always used their platform to voice contested political positions, and that a free society is strengthened, not threatened, by hearing minority or unpopular viewpoints rather than only a prevailing consensus. They would frame the track as a legitimate response to the trauma of the Nova festival attack, arguing that Israel's military campaign is a justified act of self-defence against an act of terrorism, and that international opinion has been too quick to apply the label of genocide without full regard for that context. On this view, the use of AI to help compose the song is simply a practical tool that allowed the artist to express a view he found difficult to put into words, and criticism of celebrities who back Palestinian solidarity is a fair challenge to what he sees as one-sided public discourse.
The case against
Critics would argue that describing Israel's actions as a justified response, whilst dismissing widely documented destruction of civilian infrastructure and mass civilian casualties as propaganda, is a serious mischaracterisation of the humanitarian reality on the ground, not merely an unpopular opinion. They would contend that branding fellow musicians and public figures who express solidarity with Palestinians as propagandists is not a good-faith contribution to debate but a delegitimising label that shuts down empathy for civilian suffering. For them, the concern is not that Boy George holds a minority view, but that a high-profile, AI-assisted single risks amplifying a simplified and one-sided narrative on a conflict with an immense human toll, lending it cultural weight it has not earned through rigorous engagement with the evidence.
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Originally published by NME as “Boy George says he used AI to create his controversial new pro-Israel reggae song ‘We Will Dance Again’”.