While performing at the Good Vibes Festival in Kuala Lumpur, frontman Matty Healy strongly criticised Malaysia’s anti-LGBTQ laws before kissing male bandmate Ross MacDonald. The band then ended their set, claiming officials ordered them off stage.
Homosexuality is illegal in Malaysia and punishable by 20 years in prison. The incident prompted the Malaysian authorities to call an end to the Good Vibes Festival. Malaysia’s government termed the UK band “extremely rude”.
“Unfortunately, due to current circumstances, it is impossible to proceed with the scheduled shows,” the pop rock group said in a statement.
The 1975 were among the international headline acts at the three-day Good Vibes music festival in Kuala Lumpur.
A Malaysian government committee said that the band would never again be permitted to perform in the country.
“I have called the organisers of Good Vibes Festival 2023, which is Future Sound Asia, following the very rude actions and statements displayed by UK artist ‘The 1975’ in Sepang last night,” Malaysia’s communications minister Fahmi Fadzil tweeted.
The band has now announced that they will cancel their performance at the We The Fest event in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, as well as a show in Taiwan.
“The 1975 regret to announce that their forthcoming shows in Jakarta and Taipei will no longer be going ahead as planned,” the band said on Sunday in a statement on the We The Fest Instagram page.
“The band never took the decision to cancel a show lightly and had been eagerly looking forward to playing for fans in Jakarta and Taipei but unfortunately, due to current circumstances, it is impossible to proceed with the scheduled shows,” it said.
Healy, 34, recently made headlines for his whirlwind romance with Taylor Swift.
During the performance on Friday night, Healy told fans the band had thought of pulling out of the event, saying: “I do not see the point of inviting The 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with. I made a mistake. When we were booking shows, I wasn’t looking into it,” as per dailymail.co.uk
“Unfortunately you don’t get a set of loads of uplifting songs because I’m f****** furious and that’s not fair on you, because you’re not representative of your government because you are young people, and I’m sure a lot of you are gay and progressive and cool.”
Healy and bassist MacDonald then kissed as the band played the song ‘I Like America & America Likes Me’.
He later abruptly ended the set, saying: “All right, we gotta go. We just got banned from Kuala Lumpur.”
On Saturday the festival’s organisers said the remaining schedule for the festival had been cancelled following the controversy.
A statement said the decision came after an “immediate cancellation directive” from Malaysia’s Ministry of Communications and Digital, as part of its “unwavering stance against any parties that challenge, ridicule or contravene Malaysian laws.”
–IANS
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