“I’m really fucking pissed off with this shit,” says The 1975 singer.
A few months after the band were banned from entering Malaysia, Matty Healy has spoken out about the incident that led to it and criticized the country’s LGBTQ+ stance.
On July 21st, The 1975 played at the Good Vibes Festival in Kuala Lumpur. However, after Healy criticized the government for its stance towards the LGBTQ+ community, her show was canceled. The frontman also kissed his bandmate Ross MacDonald live on the mouth. Since then, the band has been banned from entering Malaysia.
The organizer of the festival also demanded the equivalent of around 2.4 million euros in damages from the band because Matty Healy’s behavior led to the entire festival being canceled and artists and vendors complaining about lost income.
There was also criticism from the Malaysian LGBTQ+ community. She expressed herself as follows: “Foreigners don’t have the right to come here and shit on us and tell us how to do things, especially if they only make things worse for us.”
More than three months later, Healy spoke about the incident at his band’s concert in Texas on October 9th. He opened his monologue by saying, “All right, ladies and gentlemen. Okay, unfortunately for you, Dallas, you drew the short straw. You guys got the show that I really stopped caring about. And you see, this show has kind of flowed from the stage into a lot of different environments, and I don’t mind having hollow, superficial accusations thrown at me – like being racist, things like that. It allows the show to do what it’s supposed to do – expose inconsistencies and hypocrisies. I’m using myself to do this.” He continued by recounting how many people would tell him he shouldn’t talk about what was happening in Malaysia. That is the reason why he would talk about it now.
Video of the speech:
“The 1975 did not show up in Malaysia unannounced, but were invited to headline a festival by a government that knew the band with their widespread political views and routine stage show. The Malaysian festival organizers’ familiarity with the band was the basis for our invitation,” explained the singer, adding: “That I Horse was not a ploy to provoke the government, but a staple of 1975 that had been performed many times before. We also didn’t change our program that evening to play songs for freedom of expression or for gays.”
If they had canceled an integral part of the show just to comply with the government’s ideas, it would be passive support for politics, the Brit explained. However, the consequences of her appearance were angry accusations from the Malaysian authorities, as homosexuality is a criminal offense there and punishable by death.
The 1975 also received a number of accusations over the Internet, Healy explains: “The liberal outrage against our band for consistently sticking to our pro-LGBTQ stage show was the most confusing thing about it. Many people, particularly liberal ones, claimed that the performance was an insensitive display of hostility to the Malaysian government’s cultural practices and that the kiss was a performative gesture of solidarity.” He angrily explains: “Performing is an artist’s job. The stage is a place for artists’ expressions, which are inherently dramatized. That’s why people go to the damn shows.”
This was followed by another digression about the meaning of colonialism and the accusations and critical statements made towards the band. The frontman continued: “If they truly believe that artists have a responsibility to defend their liberal virtues by using their vast platforms, then these artists should be judged by the dangers and inconveniences they subject themselves to, not the Rewards they receive for parroting the consensus. There’s nothing particularly amazing or brave about changing your damn profile picture while sitting in your house in LA. I’m really fucking pissed off with this shit.”
Matty Healy’s entire speech:
In addition to his statements and comments on the militarized violence in Malaysia, the 34-year-old presented a scenario: “Those who have expressed their outrage on Twitter at The 1975’s unwillingness to accommodate Malaysian customs would find it appalling if The 1975 would bow to, say, Mississippi’s respective shitty trans laws.”
Matty Healy concluded: “The idea that it is incumbent on artists to respond to local sensibilities wherever they are invited to perform sets a very dangerous precedent.”
The band’s lawyers have been trying to settle the legal dispute between the Malaysian festival organizer “Future Sound Asia” and The 1975 for several months.
The 1975 are currently on their “Still… At Their Very Best” tour and will also be stopping in five German cities. After this tour, they announced that they would be taking a break from live shows for the time being.
All concert dates in Germany:
- March 5, 2024: Hamburg, Barclays Arena
- March 12, 2024: Berlin, Verti Music Hall
- March 18, 2024: Munich, Zenith
- March 21, 2024: Frankfurt, Jahrhunderthalle
- March 22, 2024: Cologne, Palladium