It’s Pride Month around the world, as we head towards the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Riots at the end of the month, and businesses are finding all sorts of ways to show their support.

Navigation app Waze has teamed up with Boy George, and you can select the Culture Club star to be the voice of the app.

The iconic singer however does not tell you whether you need to head left or right, instead you get George sharing some catchy phrases including  “passion over fashion”, “life is about learning to be who you are”, and “every day is like survival, you’re the driver, not my rival!” So they’re directions in life as well as instructions on where you want to go to.

The app also allows you to change your car’s logo in a style designed by the singer, including being a Car-ma Chameleon,

Plus you can log into Spotify and listen to a playlist of songs selected by Boy George. Sylvester, Nina Simone, Bronski Beat, Divine, Pet Shop Boys and Erasure are included, alongside some of Boy George’s recent releases.

The singer will celebrate his 60th birthday this week, and has previously said he plans to release 60 songs to mark the occasion.

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Singer Sheldon Riley first got our attention on The Voice – Australia in 2018, he returned to the show the following year as a ‘All-Star’ and has gone on to complete in America’s Got Talent. 

Now Sheldon is releasing his own original music, and his latest offering is Left Broken. 

OUTinPerth’s Graeme Watson chatted to Sheldon about his journey so far, and what he drew upon to write his haunting new single.

Take a listen. 

Take a listen to Sheldon’s news song Left Broken.

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Boy George says he’ll celebrate his 60th birthday later this year by releasing a whopping 60 tunes of music for his fans.

The Culture Club singer’s birthday is on 14th June and George told TV host Jonathon Ross he’d spent the last year preparing the songs to mark the birthday milestone.

The singer is constantly releasing new music, his latest single Good Intentions has just come out on iTunes. The soulful house track is made for the dancefloor and includes the line “this ain’t your first time at the disco”.

In recent years George has released a steady stream of singles on iTunes, but has also dropped tracks on YouTube and Twitter, including a collaboration with Kim Wilde, and a mix of tunes spanning many different genres.

More recently George shared a song addressed to Ghana’s President Nana Addo Dankwa, that addresses homophobic behaviour in the country. George also recently took part in an discussion about the situation in Ghana via social media app Clubhouse.

Listen to a rendition of George’s song to the President of Ghana. 

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Boy George has hung up on a Queensland radio announcer who insulted the musician by reducing his decades long career to just a few hits his band Culture Club had in the early 1980s.

The Voice Australia coach was a guest on 4BC with host Neil Breen this morning. Breen introduced the iconic music star by playing his band’s song Karma Chameleon and saying he was pop star for a short period of time.

“If you grew up like I did as a teenager in the 1980s then Boy George was bigger than a big deal here in Australia. He was massive.” Breen began with his introduction of Boy George.

“His band Culture Club dominated the Australian singles chart from late ’82 into ’83 with two songs. Karma Chameleon was obviously their most notable one that we remember, but Do You Really Want To Hurt Me as well was their breakthrough song.”

Boy George didn’t waste a moment highlighting that his band had many other hit songs, saying there were about 10 other massive hits. The musician said it was insulting to have his career described as something that had happened in the past.

“No, no, please don’t talk about me like I’m in past context. It’s really insulting.” Boy George told the radio host.

Breen tried to recover by explaining he was “re-introducing” the star but Boy George was having none of it.

“Reintroduce them to someone who has been on national TV in Australia for the last four years? You don’t need to reintroduce me. I’m on TV. Everybody knows who I am.” he responded.

Breen continued on explaining it was the “just a bit of fun” on breakfast radio, before he realised that Boy George was no longer on the line.

The singer commented on the interview on his Twitter account, joking that he clearly needed to get a bigger hat,

“After four years on @TheVoiceAU apparently I still need to be reintroduced to the Australian public. I must get a bigger hat! Just did one of the ‘dark ages’ radio interviews that ended with me hanging up!” Boy George said.

While Breen was correct about Culture Club being massive in 1982 and 1983 the band had success in Australia and globally for a much longer period of time. After the success of their first two albums, the band’s third album Waking Up With The House On Fire released in 1984 went to number two in the Australian charts, and they scored more hits with their 1986 album From Luxury to Heartache. All up the band have released 21 singles, and 10 of them have charted in Australia.

Culture Club reformed in the 1990s and had further success with their album Don’t Mind If I Do, and their most recent release Life reached number 25 in the Australian album’s chart in 2018. Alongside that output Boy George has just released his tenth solo album, plus he’s found success with a multitude of dance music records under different aliases, been a top global DJ, and produced records for many other artists.

After appearing on The Voice in the UK, he moved to the Australia version of the show.

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Eighties pop star Marilyn says people should give author J.K. Rowling a break over her tweets.

The Harry Potter author has faced a new wave of transphobia criticism after she took exception to an opinion piece that described “people who menstruate”, Rowling took to Twitter to criticise the piece, saying it should have described people who menstruate as “women”.

“‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?” Rowling tweeted.

The author was inundated with responses, as other users of the social media platform highlighted that transgender people, non-binary people and gender-nonconforming people can also menstruate. The children’s author hit back at critics saying that if people didn’t acknowledge differences in sex, they were erasing the experiences of same-sex attracted people and women.

“If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth.” Rowling responded.

Rowling continues saying the criticisms of here view were “nonsense”.

“The idea that women like me, who’ve been empathetic to trans people for decades, feeling kinship because they’re vulnerable in the same way as women – ie, to male violence – ‘hate’ trans people because they think sex is real and has lived consequences – is a nonsense.” the author argued.

While Rowling’s responses brought on a second wave of criticism and negative feedback, she did find support from Eighties pop star Marilyn who said people should give the author a break.

“JK Rowling is one of the most supportive people I have ever met with regards to individuals choices to be whoever they want to be!!” Marilyn contributed, ” The fact that she seems to be continually ‘on the chopping block’ as ‘anti trans’ is absolute nonsense!! Give here a break!!”

“It’s basic human anatomy…’women’ have wombs and menstrual cycles because they produce eggs. Having a sex change does not involve this issue, seeing as they have not found a way to implant that function into male anatomy, yet. End of“, Marilyn blasted followers who argued Rowling’s tweets were offensive.

“She is one of the most truly beautiful kind people I have ever met!! Political correctness has gone WAY too far!!!!” Marilyn said in a follow up tweet.

LGBTIQ+ advocates have condemned the tweets from Rowling, sharing an opinion piece from trans man and Harry Potter superfan Jackson Bird, directing LGBTIQ+ allies to black, transgender support organisations.

We stand with trans youth, especially those Harry Potter fans hurt by her inaccurate and cruel tweets. Our friend @jackisnotabird says it best. https://t.co/jLkchof3rn

— GLAAD (@glaad) June 7, 2020

Marilyn had a brief pop career in the mid-80s which was particularly successful in Australia. He was a close friend of Boy George and the two had a long association before they found fame, and have had an on again / off again friendship over the decades.

The pair both lived in the same London squat before finding fame. Marilyn, whose real name is Peter Robinson, was a regular at the Blitz club where George worked as the coat check girl. After George scored world wide hits with Culture Club, Marilyn also managed to get a record contract and released a series of singles in the mid-80s.

Marilyn had a decent hit with Calling Your Name and Baby You Left Me  is another memorable tune. He also appeared on the Band Aid single Do They Know Its Christmas? When he visited Australia for a promotional tour in 1984 he was mobbed by fans. Sadly by the time his debut album came out in 1985 the heat and gone off his music career and the album didn’t sell well.

Robinson disappeared from public life for may years, but has returned to making music over the last few years. Back in 2015 he appeared alongside Boy George and Geri Halliwell on a celebrity edition of the UK version of Gogglebox.

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Jamie Hannah got our attention last year when he released House of Truth, his collaboration with Boy George. Now he’s back with a new tune called Magic. 

The video for the songs features Hannah hanging out in a remote landscape with a shirtless hunk while he sings about how you can “become the magic”, while he traverses through the elements of earth, wind, fire and rain.

The classically trained singer is signed to Boy George’s record label and Magic is the third track he’s released so far in his career.

Speaking to UK website PRIDE Hannah said he hoped the track was empowering and he’d drawn on his own life experiences when writing the song.

“Life is full of ups and downs,” Hannah told PRIDE. “Many face challenges that feel insurmountable at the time—mine included dyslexia, death of relatives, knowing I was gay from an early age and not knowing what to do, an all-encompassing love of music that set me apart at school, serious illness in the near family and close friends, and living in London for the first time after being brought up in the country.”

Take a look at his latest video.

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Boy George loves social media and is always posting to Twitter, but while in COVID-19 lockdown he’s ramped up his social media use and gone into overdrive.

Alongside regualr live streams with fans, and releasing a steady stream of new tunes and music from his latest dub album, he’s just put out a psychedelic series on his YouTube channel.

Branded ‘The Poor Little Greenie Show’, the promotional trailer and pilot episode see George appearing as a green skinned alien, a digital drag version of himself and several other characters.

The clips contains some lost club classics including Fierce Child’s Men Adore (A Whore) and George shares a new song of his own called The Lion and the Gemini. 

“The show will include interviews, music video and general stupidity.” Boy George says in the trailer clip.

Check out Bioy George’s recent dub output including this collaboration with Linton Kwesi Johnson.

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Like many entertainers around the world, Boy George has been entertaining fans with regular posts to social media, live videos and special performances. George has always shared a lot on social media, so for him it’s just business as usual.

This week George succumbed to fan requests and delivered a rendition of Culture Club’s breakthrough hit Karma Chameleon. Rather than delivering the song in it’s usual upbeat style he decided to do a more stripped down jazz version of the song.

The arrangement was sent to him by Keith George, who is a successful impersonator of Boy George, appearing as The Boy George Experience.

“There’s something beautiful and ironic about my impersonator giving me a stripped down version of Karma Chameleon.” Boy George said.

Check out the clip. 

Boy George will be back on Australian TV screens later this year as a coach on The Voice Australia, but he may not be able to appear for the whole series.

According to TV industry podcast TV Blackbox, the first part of the series was filmed earlier this year, but the battle rounds and finals have not been filmed and it’s unlikely Boy George and Kelly Rowland will be able to make it back to Australia for the remainder of the series.

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We fell in love with Lady Lloyd’s track Just Another when Boy George played it at his Court Hotel DJ gig last year.

Now the social commentary track finally has a video to highlight a mix by Kinky Rowland. The track is on Boy George’s own record label BGP.

The pair are rumoured to have several other works in the pipeline including a homage to rabbit dressing theatrical matriarch Dame Judy Dench.

Check out the video. 

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Singing sensation Jack Vidgen made a stunning return to performing last night when he took to the stage on the TV show The Voice – Australia.

Vidgen captured the nation’s attention when he won Australia’s Got Talent back in 2011 and went on to record to an album when he was just 14 years old. But he found the criticism from online trolls too much to bear and his music career became overwhelming, so he gave up singing.

This year The Voice – Australia has included several ‘All Stars’ in the show’s line up, a mix of previous contestants on the show, as well as singers who have found fame on other talent TV shows, opening the door for Vidgen to have a second stab at a music career.

On the show he explained that he hadn’t sung for five years, but now he was ready to return to performing. In a series of interviews leading up to his Sunday night appearance Vidgen shared how his life has changed in the intervening years.

Vidgen shared how he’s spent time having a regular job working in aged care and retail, and he also has opened up about how he felt more confident in his looks after he got fillers in his lips. The singer also recently came out, publicly sharing that he’s gay.

Appearing on The Kyle and Jackie O Show ahead of his appearance on The Voice -Australia Vidgen said he came out to family and friends a couple of years ago, but noted that he’s single and happy going with the flow.

“I came out a couple of years ago, I guess I got to that point again in my personal life where I was happy and I was accepting who I am, and I got to that point where I wanted to be able to share that.

“I was really fortunate, so many people have a less fortunate situation, but everyone was chill in my life, it just wasn’t a thing, which I think is the best way for it to be.” Vidgen said.

While some of the All Star contestants have impressed the judges, others have failed to get a single chair to turn. Take a look at Jack Vidgen’s audition and see if he can get the attention of Boy George, Guy Sebastian, Kelly Rowland and Delta Goodrem.    

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