The 1975’s Matty Healy Rejects Criticism For Onstage Kiss At Malaysian Festival

October 11, 2023

In July 2023, The 1975‘s Matthew Healy kissed his bandmate, bass player Ross MacDonald, during a performance at the Good Vibes festival in Malaysia, a country where homosexuality is a crime and such public acts are against the law. The incident prompted a flurry of outrage from certain progressive circles, who claimed that Healy knowingly endangered Malaysian LGBTQIA+ fans, and that the act was nothing more than hollow virtue-signalling.

The 1975 – ‘Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America’

At the time, Healy – who has had a year mired in controversies, particularly in relation to his appearance on the Adam Friedland Show, where he laughed as the hosts mocked Japanese, Hawaiian and Scottish people, as well as the rapper Ice Spice – stayed largely silent.

But Healy has now commented on the backlash, revealing that he and his band were “briefly imprisoned” as a result of the kiss, and claiming that he mostly doesn’t mind “hollow, shallow accusations of being racist or stuff like that.”

While playing a show in Fort Worth, Texas, Healy addressed the incident, reading a pre-written speech from his phone, as per Pitchfork. “If you truly believe that artists have a responsibility to uphold their liberal virtues by using their massive platforms, then those artists should be judged by the danger and inconvenience that they face for doing so, not by the rewards they receive for parroting consensus,” Healy said.

Healy accused those who had spoken out against him of falling prey to a dangerous double standard, noting that his critics would find it abhorrent if the 1975 were to “acquiesce to, let’s say, Mississippi’s perspective on abortion or trans rights.”

From there, Healy also provided fuller context of the kiss, noting that it was something that he had done onstage many times prior and that anyone who invited his band to tour would be aware of such onstage antics. “Me kissing Ross was not a stunt simply meant to provoke the government,” he said.

“The 1975 did not waltz into Malaysia unannounced,” Healy continued. “They were invited to headline a festival by a government who had full knowledge of the band with its well-publicised political views and its routine stage show … It should be expected that if you invite dozens of Western performers into your country, they’ll bring their Western values with them.”

Healy’s kiss led to the cancellation of the rest of the Good Vibes festival, and the organisers are seeking RM12.3 million (AUD $4 million) in damages from The 1975. The 1975’s tour will continue with shows around the States before the band takes an “indefinite hiatus”.