English singer-songwriter, DJ and actor Boy George was born as George Alan O’Dowd 63 years ago in Kent, and is best known as the lead singer of the pop band ‘Culture Club’.
In the beginning of the 80’s, George was a fan of the New Romantic Movement which originated in the UK and was very popular back then. He attended a couple of nightclubs on a regular basis and was influenced by big artists like David Bowie, Roxy Music and Patti Smith, amongst others.
George had this particular style of dressing up as a male and female contemporarily, which was noticed by a music businessman, who helped him join the group Bow Wow Wow. However, George had clashes with the group’s lead singer and left the band. Shortly after, he created the group ‘Sex Gang Children’ which then changed to ‘Culture Club’.
The band’s first album was released in 1982, which contained the international number one hit ‘Do you really want to hurt Me?’, followed by another 2 Top 5 hits ‘I’ll Tumble 4 Ya’ and ‘Time’.
Their next album had a string of hits and was a really huge success for the band. These were ‘Karma Chameleon’, another number one international hit, ‘Victims’, ‘Miss Me Blind’ and ‘It’s a Miracle’. ‘The War Song’ was included in their third album and reached number 2 in the UK charts.
‘Culture Club’ split in 1986, following George’s drug addiction, but reunited in 1998. They had a couple of hits and a new album followed in 1999. The group reunited once again in the 2000s and gave a couple of concerts in Australia and UAE.
George started as a solo artist right after the group dissolved and had a number of hits like ‘Sold’, ‘Everything I Own’, ‘To be Reborn’ amongst others. He created his personal brand name and wrote several songs. He even became a remarkable DJ and performed in various night clubs. In addition, he also created a fashion line called ‘Be-Rude’ and participated in a number of shows in various cities.
In the years that followed, George continued to releasing albums and participating in various TV shows. For example, in 1986, together with Culture Club, he starred in an episode of ‘The A-Team’ and in 2003 in the soap opera ‘Hollyoaks’. Earlier this year, he played Harold Zidler in the Moulin Rouge Musical.
During his career so far, Boy George won an Ivor Novello award as well as an Attitude award. Boy George also published three autobiographies.
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