Boy George is back with a new release – King of Everything - and he has grown a beard

Boy George has had many ups and downs in his long career since he came to fame as the gender-bending singer of Culture Club back in the 1980s but he has reinvented himself and is back with a brand new look and a new single or "focus track" for his album that could well take him to the top again.

King of Everything is taken from George’s new album This Is What I Do and released by the singer’s own Very Me Records. It will be available in CD and vinyl formats.

Boy George has always been an artist in many ways. He is not just a singer and songwriter but has used his looks and visual appeal to attract publicity and fans. He is doing so again but with a very different look.

Press reports in the past were showing that Boy George had put on a lot of weight but he has really slimmed down due to healthy dieting and his Buddhist lifestyle. He has also been clean of drugs and drink for the past five years and it shows because he is looking very youthful for his actual early fifties.

He has kept the make-up at times and the flamboyant appearance with colourful headgear but what stands out more than anything is that George is now wearing a neatly trimmed goatee beard. He is not looking anything like he did in his androgynous and dreadlocked Culture Club days.

King of Everythinghas a video that shows George standing in a boxing ring. He has cast himself as a boxer and is looking back on his life and career as a fighter. A boxer like a singer has two lives, the performer in the public eye and the man off stage.

He is feeling sorry about all the things that had gone wrong not just inside the ring but outside and at the same time asking if he can make it back to being on top.

George sings:”What’s the word on the street, have I lost my crown? Will I be king of everything?”

In many ways the lyrics reflect the very real problems the singer has had in his life that have kept him out of the limelight and from being at the top of the pop charts like he used to be in the days of Culture Club.

George has had a lot of bad press in the past due to drug abuse and addictions and his problems with the law but he is putting all that behind him and making a new start.

His voice is as soulful as it ever was but more mature sounding and deeper. King of Everything has all the makings of a classic pop ballad and could well take him back to the top of the charts.

This Is What I Do as a title says a lot. The 12 songs are asking us to take a look at the real Boy George, the sensitive and gifted singer and songwriter, not the picture generated by the press or his past publicity machine.

George is very happy with this new album which is his first solo effort in many years. It is said to be very much inspired by his roots in 1970s music and the acts like David Bowie that were and are his musical mentors.

The new album’s producer was Richie Stevens (Tina Turner, Simply Red and Culture Club) and it was mixed by Dave Bascombe (Tears For Fears, Depeche Mode and Doves).

This Is What I Do is the album Boy George had wanted to make and has now done so.

It was released on 28 October and was promoted by live dates in the UK, including the Glee Club, Birmingham on 5 November and an appearance at Rough Trade East in London on 13^th of the same month.

George has for many years been a DJ as well as a singer and musician and this is a side of him that he will be continuing. It lets him express his creativity in music in a very different way and is something he delights in doing. Boy George loves to make people feel something from what they are hearing and in his DJ sets he is able to make them do so.