Happy Birthday to Iconic Pop Superstar Boy George

George Alan O'Dowd was born today, June 14, in 1961 in Eltham, London. He is a singer, songwriter, DJ and fashion designer better known as Boy George. He is the lead singer of the pop band Culture Club, which won a Grammy award for best new artist in 1984. At the height of the band's fame in the 80s they recorded global hit songs such as "Karma Chameleon," "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me," and "Time (Clock of the Heart)." 

George is known for his soulful voice and androgynous appearance. He was part of the English New Romantic movement, which emerged in the late 1970s to the early 1980s.

His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by rhythm and blues and reggae. He was lead singer of Jesus Loves You during the period 1989–1992. His 1990s and 2000s-era solo music has glam influences, such as David Bowie and Iggy Pop. 

In 2002 George starred in the London musical Taboo, based on the New Romantic scene of the early 1980s (George did not play himself, opting instead to take on the persona of Australian-born performance artist Leigh Bowery). Boy George was nominated for a Tony Award for the "Best Musical Score" and Taboo was a great success in London's West End, though a heavily altered American production  was short-lived.

More recently, he has released fewer music recordings, splitting his time between songwriting, DJing, writing books, designing clothes, and photography. In 2015, Boy George received an Ivor Novello Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors for Outstanding Services to British Music.

When George was with Culture Club, much was made of his androgynous appearance, and there was speculation about his sexuality. Although he never flatly denied that he was gay, when asked in interviews about his sexual orientation, George gave various answers. In 1985, when asked by Barbara Walters about his sexual orientation, George said he was bisexual and had various girlfriends, as well as boyfriends, in the past. He gave a famous, oft-quoted response to an interviewer that he preferred "a nice cup of tea" to sex.

In his autobiography, Take It Like a Man, George stated that he had secret relationships with punk rock singer Kirk Brandon and Culture Club drummer Jon Moss (at right with George). He stated many of the songs he wrote for Culture Club were about his relationship with Moss.

In 2006, in an episodic documentary directed by Simon George titled The Madness of Boy George, George declared on camera he was "militantly gay." In a 2008 documentary Living with Boy George, he talks about his first realization he was gay, and when he first told his parents. He discloses that he understands why men fall in love with one another as well as with women.