The 1975 were performing at the Good Vibes Festival in Kuala Lumpur on July 21 when Matty Healy protested the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws in an on-stage rant.
Homosexuality in the country is illegal and is punishable by 20 years in prison.
The group’s set was cut short and the rest of the weekend-long festival was later cancelled, while the band have also been banned from performing in Malaysia in the future.
Matty, 34, explained he ‘made a mistake’ by agreeing to perform at the festival and admitted he ‘didn’t look into it’ when booking the show.
In the footage shared online, Matty told the audience: ‘I made a mistake. When we were booking shows, I wasn’t looking into it.
‘I don’t see the f***** point… of inviting The 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with.’
He then kissed The 1975’s bassist Ross MacDonald before the group played their song, I Like America & America Likes Me.
Following their stunt, the group’s performance was cut short and left the stage.
‘All right, we gotta go,’ Matty said. ‘We just got banned from Kuala Lumpur, I’ll see you later.’
The footage of him kissing his bandmate has been circulated online and Matty’s mum, Denise Welch reposted the video on her Twitter page as she breaks her silence after her son Matty Healy was banned.
She simply captioned the repost: ‘He’s my son,’ and added a rainbow emoji.
In a statement to local media on Friday, the Good Vibes Festival’s organisers said the performance was abruptly cancelled due to ‘non-compliance with local performance guidelines’.
But said, at the time, the festival would continue as scheduled for the rest of the weekend. However, the schedule has since been cancelled.
Malaysia’s Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil called the band’s performance ‘very disrespectful’.
In a statement, the organisers explained the cancellation of the remainder of the festival and said: ‘We deeply regret to announce that the remaining schedule of Good Vibes Festival 2023, planned for today and tomorrow has been cancelled following the controversial conduct and remarks by UK artist Matt Healy from the band The 1975.’
