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Boy George has hit back at anti-Israel campaigners who have criticised him for taking part in Eurovision after the song competition bosses refused to ban the country from competing.
The Culture Club singer has teamed up with an Italian singer, Senhit, to represent San Marino in the contest next month.
Eurovision has been at the centre of controversy amid growing calls to prevent Israel from performing but bosses ruled in December that the country could compete.
The move prompted Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and Slovenia to withdraw from the competition and countries have struggled to get acts to sign up.
And now Boy George, 64, has broken his silence against critics who have slammed him for taking part.
Speaking ahead of the annual London Eurovision Party on Sunday he said: ‘I have many, many Jewish friends that I’ve had since I was 15 or 16 years old.
‘Are people asking me as a principled human being to turn my back on my Jewish friends? It’s not going to happen, it’s never going to happen.
‘From the beginning of my career I wore a Jewish star. Go back and look at pictures of Culture Club. I am so affiliated with Jewish people. I am not necessarily affiliated with Israel. I don’t really have an opinion on that.
‘But the job of music is to unite people.’
On Ireland withdrawing from the competition he added: ‘Ireland is my mother’s home country. I hope they’re not too angry. But if they are, that’s out of my control.’
The 70th Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Vienna, Austria following JJ’s victory at the Grand Final in Basel, Switzerland with their song Wasted Love.
It comes as over 1,000 artists from the entertainment industry, including the Karma Chameleon singer, signed an open letter supporting Israel’s continued participation in Eurovision.
It was in response to the international campaigns urging the European Broadcasting Union to bar it from the event.
The letter was organised by Creative Community for Peace a pro-Israel advocacy group and signed by the likes of Dame Helen Mirren, Mila Kunis, Amy Schumer and Selma Blair.
It read: ‘We believe that unifying events such as singing competitions are crucial to help bridge our cultural divides and unite people of all backgrounds through their shared love of music,” the signatories wrote.
They added that they were ‘shocked and disappointed’ by calls to boycott Israel ‘for responding to the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.’
The 70th Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Vienna, Austria following JJ’s victory at the Grand Final in Basel, Switzerland with their song Wasted Love.
