Boy George

Boy George is universally recognised as one of the music scenes most iconic artists and for the past 30 years has maintained a strong position at the forefront of this ever-changing, multi-faceted industry. Attracting high praise from variety of publications that include RollingStone, Mixmag and MTV and having gained truly global recognition, the Grammy-nominated singer has created a worldwide presence that transcends age, race, colour, creed, nationality and even religion. To date George has sold over 100 million singles and in excess of 50 million albums as a performer and songwriter with 80’s super group Culture Club and as a solo artist in his own right. He also continues to be one of the worlds most successful and in-demand international DJs touring extensively across the globe. Away from his musical successes George has been a columnist for national newspaper the Daily Express, the author of two bestselling autobiographies and has been the co-producer, songwriter and on-stage star of the award-winning musical 'Taboo' on both New York’s Broadway and London's West End. Alongside all of this he runs his own fashion label B-Rude with outlets in New York, Los Angeles and London, as well as maintaining an elite membership to the world’s designer fashion hierarchy – DJing regularly at post catwalk shows such as Versace, Phillip Treacy and more recently Hugo Boss. We didn't even get to George making it into the Top 50 of the BBC's 100 Greatest Britons of all time, as well as being photographed by everyone from Richard Avedon to Lord Snowdon to Steve Meisel. A DJ since the late 70’s, Boy George has had a long and successful career associated with house music stemming from early acid house and Chicago grooves in the 80’s, through to electro and tech house in the 90’s and 00’s. This lengthy association with the electronic music scene led to him playing at some of world’s most iconic venues such as the Manchester’s legendary The Haçienda, Shelleys in Stoke and Paul Oakenfold’s Spectrum at Heaven in London. And ever since George has maintained a constant touring schedule, notching up hundreds of thousands of air miles and taking in far reaching international destinations from the snow capped mountains of Vancouver to the golden sun kissed sands of Bondi beach. Currently ranked #90 in the DJ Mag Top100 2011 DJ Poll, his travel commitments have seen him pack out events in over 70 countries around the world, from super-brands Godskitchen, Cream, Manumission and Spundae to global powerhouse venues like Space in Ibiza, Ministry of Sound in London, Zouk in Singapore and Guvernment in Toronto. Additionally his name has been a prominent figure at many of the world’s leading festivals including Glastonbury, Homelands, Love Box, BigGayOut and V Festival. In recent times George has hosted the 2010 DJ Mag Top100 Awards ceremony at Ministry of Sound, performing alongside a bulging line up that included Deadmau5, Afrojack, Fedde Le Grand, and former World #1 DJ Armin van Buuren. He has also appeared at the 2011 Brit Awards, Elle Style Awards and MTV Ibiza Party alongside Mark Ronson, whilst headlining the Official Formula 1 After parties in Singapore, Monaco, Dubai, Sao Paulo and New Delhi, as well as featuring once again as both host and guest DJ at the 2011 DJ Mag Top100 Awards ceremony at Ministry of Sound. More recently George was invited as a guest speaker at the 2011 Amsterdam Dance Event. A standout producer in his own right, George’s productions over the years have been released under imprints such as Ministry of Sound, Sony, GU Music, Virgin, Polystar, Universal, Subliminal, EMI and featured on compilations as varied as Global Underground and Bedrock. His impressive list of collaborations stands equally tall with George having worked with dance heavyweights such as Erick Morillo, Deep Dish, Afrika Bambaataa, Groove Armada and Faithless. While his records have been remixed by a multitude of artists that range from Tom Stephan and Holy Ghost to Hervé and Congorock. Since early 2010 George has unveiled a bed of new studio releases that include ‘Amazing Grace’, ‘Sunshine into my life’ featuring Sharlene Hector of Basement Jaxx fame, ‘Brand New’ and ‘Turn 2 Dust’. As well as his own projects, George has spent much of the past two years collaborating with a number of other artists that include Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt (Miike Snow), Glide & Swerve and Harry Choo Choo Romero. Opening 2011 with the release of his long awaited artist album ‘Ordinary Alien’, a dancefloor focused album that consisted of unreleased material, George decided to return to the business of running his own record label, so back in spring 2011 he launched a new musical era in his career with the birth of VG Records with fellow DJ/producer Marc Vedo. Geared towards releasing cool, credible house tracks the label gives George and Marc the freedom to sign both underground and commercially respected artists. To date the label has won fans in Roger Sanchez, Chris Lake, Tom Novy and Axwell, firmly establishing itself as an imprint to watch. George’s production plans for 2012 will see him working on a number of collaboration with renowned stars such as Skin (Skunk Anansie), Bob Sinclar and Afrojack. While new releases from VG Records in 2012 include ‘Don’t take the night’ and ‘Kalino Mome’ which features Bulgarian pop queen Desi Slava providing vocals. With a long list of guest slots on radio stations such as Radio 1, Kiss FM, Sirius and Capital, George has also featured heavily on TV shows around the world with appearances on programmes like BBC 1 Jonathan Ross, Jools Holland, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, VH1, Top of the Pops and CD:TV. Although in recent years (in the UK at least), the media spotlight has fallen too much on George's iconic media status and not enough on an ever-expanding and prolific musical output, his presence in the music industry still remains an ever-present series of headline making stories with notable publications such as DJ Magazine, NME, Q Magazine, Ok Magazine, The Guardian, New York Times, and Mumbai Mirror all following his career with great zeal.