Boy George on His Breakthrough Moment -- New York Magazine

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Beginnings: The Breakthrough Moment

Boy George, Musician

�Sharing your inner feelings with other people is what really makes something powerful.�

I think for me it was �Do You Really Want to Hurt Me,� because I wrote that song, and it was a very personal song, and when the record company wanted to put it out as the third single I was like, �No, no, no, you can’t do that. It’s so personal and it’s slow.� People were listening to a lot of dance music at the time, and I’d just been in Bow Wow Wow, and it was all sort of rhythmic, and I was like, �No, this is a mistake! If you put this song out, we’ll be finished. It will be the end of our careers.� It went to No. 1 in 36 countries. The lesson I learned from that is being personal, sharing your inner feelings with other people, is what really makes something powerful. So, whenever I talk to a young singer or an artist, I’ll always talk to them about connecting to what they do emotionally. You know, investing in the lyrics and all of that. So it was an education for me to realize that that was what people responded to. People out there respond to truth.


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