Boy George has spoken about the importance of music in his life and how it’s helped him get through some difficult times.

The Culture Club singer is one of several celebrities who have donated prizes to Chris Evans’ charity auction for Ukraine. Other big names who have offered up prizes include Rod Stewart, Coldplay and Jared Leto.

For Boy George’s prize, he is auctioning off all the rights to a song he has written about Ukraine following his visit to the country eight years ago.

Speaking to Evans on his ‘Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky’, the singer said: “I went there about eight years ago, I Dj’d there, and I had the most amazing night and I remember thinking, this is such a beautiful place, I must come back.”

He continued: “I suppose the spirit of this song is saying Ukraine is a beautiful country and hopefully it will be a beautiful country again, you know, and I watched this young kid the other day on Instagram saying, ‘Don’t be sad about all of that’. It’s difficult not to be because, you know, we’re just looking at it and were horrified and feeling helpless. And you know, to me, it’s just music is the thing that has always saved me in all my difficult situations.”

George also talked about wanting to go back to Ukraine. “It was about eight years ago and what was really funny because I worked with my brother-in-law, my sister’s husband and everybody kept thinking we were a couple. So people kept saying how long have you been together?

“I just remember thinking it was such a beautiful place. You know, it was summer I got picked up by this incredible kid who was like a punk rocker in this big American car like one of The Addams Family for my whole trip from beginning to end was just magical. And I remember thinking, I must go back, you know, and I would love to do that. I’d love to go back and sing this song.”

Announcing the auction earlier this week, Evans said: “Basically everyone we contacted to get involved has said yes.

“If we raise a tenner it’s a tenner they don’t currently have – but let’s hope it’s a bit more than that.”

He added: “We are not attached to any kind of optimistic outcome, we are just going to do it and send the cheque where it needs to go as soon as possible when the money comes in.”

Other prizes include a lunch with Matthew Goode, Matt Smith, Hugh Bonneville, Colin Firth and Jack Savoretti; a five-course meal with Dame Emma Thompson, Hayley Atwell, Michelle Dockery, Vanessa Kirby and Sienna Miller; and four tickets to see Coldplay at Wembley Stadium with the opportunity to meet the band.

For the full list of the items and experiences on offer, visit: auctionforukraine.com.

Meanwhile, last month, Boy George announced the launch of an NFT collection titled CryptoQueenz, which was created to mark the release of seven new songs.