Everything You Need to Know About Matty Healy’s Malaysia Controversy

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At this point, I think we’ve all had enough of this guy, but alas, Matty Healy continues to prove himself utterly incapable of shutting up.

You’re likely already familiar with the 1975 frontman, who has made headlines over the past few years for various bigoted jokes and stunts. His most recent controversy? After an attempt to stand up for the LGBTQ+ community at a concert in Malaysia, Healy saw heavy criticism from advocates, who said his comments could actually worsen things for queer Malaysians.

Here’s a brief overview of Healy’s most recent incident, and some of his problematic past.

Who is Matty Healy?

Healy is the lead singer of the 1975, an English band that rose to fame during the heyday of Tumblr. The band broke out with singles like “Chocolate” and “Robbers,” garnering both critical and commercial acclaim. You probably remember when he was briefly linked to Taylor Swift earlier this year, which unfortunately only thrust him further into the spotlight.

Healy also has a penchant for making controversial remarks and “jokes.” In April, he made racist comments about Ice Spice on a podcast (though the two have reportedly reconciled), and in May admitted to masturbating to porn on a site that fetishizes extreme degradation of Black women. In September, Healy made a tasteless joke that the band boygenius had inspired him to form a group called “girlr*****,” which led to Lucy Dacus absolutely ethering him on X/Twitter, after which he appeared to have deleted his account.

What did Matty Healy do in Malaysia?

In July, the 1975 played a headlining set at the Good Vibes Festival in Kuala Lumpur. Partway through the performance, Healy started railing against the Malaysian government’s anti-LGBTQ+ policies, claiming that playing the festival was “a mistake” and that when the gig was booked, he wasn’t familiar with the country’s anti-sodomy laws.

“When we were booking shows, I wasn’t looking into it. I don’t see the fucking point… of inviting the 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with,” Healy said onstage. “I’m sorry if that offends you, and you’re religious… but your government are a bunch of fucking r******. I don’t care anymore. If you push, I’m gonna push back. I’m not in the fucking mood anymore.”

He then proceeded to kiss his bandmate Ross MacDonald onstage. The band was forced to end their set early after playing just seven songs, and the rest of the festival was canceled.

What happened to the 1975 after the Malaysia incident?

After the festival, the 1975 was banned from Malaysia and subsequently canceled concert dates in Jakarta and Taipei. According to Fortune, the band is also being sued by the organizers behind the Good Vibes Festival, Future Sound Asia (FSA), which is seeking $2.7 million in damages after the losses they say they suffered when they shut down the festival in response to Healy’s comments on stage.

How did locals respond to Matty Healy’s comments?

While Malaysian LGBTQ+ advocates criticized the government for censoring Healy, they also slammed the 1975 frontman for what many considered performative “white savior” activism. One organizer, Dhia Rezki Rohaizad, told the Guardian that Healy’s speech at the concert was not how they wanted to highlight the issue of their country’s anti-LGBTQ laws. “[Making comments] at this scale, with a lot of people who are not aware of the discussions going around with regards to queer activism, that is what is harmful,” Rohaizad said.

One TikToker, Mikhail Hanafi, also criticized Healy for not speaking with organizers on the ground beforehand. “He didn’t talk to LGBTQ+ groups and NGOs in Malaysia to ask ‘how can I help? What do you need? What would not be helpful and what should I not do?’” Hanafi said in a video. “Matty Healy wanted to be a straight white savior to the poor brown gays, but was he?”

In an op-ed for The Guardian, nonbinary Malay artist bones tan jones remarked that Healy’s actions “mirror the post-colonial guilt that many white westerners seem to have when visiting countries once ruled by the British empire.” They went on to note that pre-colonization, Malaysia was “home to an acceptance of gender variance,” citing examples of gender identities that existed outside the western binary, including the sida-sida and the manang bali.

“Healy is protected by his status – he can return to the U.K., where will face nothing more than a travel ban or slap on the wrist,” jones wrote. “He flies into a country, makes a clumsy provocation, leaves damage in his wake — then posts memes poking fun at the cancellation and at Malaysia from behind the safety of his phone screen.”

What has Matty Healy said about the incident since then?

At a concert in Dallas on October 10, Healy spoke out about the incident for the first time. Acknowledging that he had been told not to speak publicly about the Malaysia concert, he proceeded to give a 10-minute speech to the crowd responding to the backlash, which he read off of his phone. Healy read his comments while the venue’s monitors played videos of the game Subway Surfers and satisfying slime, likely intended as a commentary on Gen Z’s shortened attention spans.

Matty Healy Deleted His X Account After Getting Dunked on by Lucy Dacus

The Boygenius bandmember responded to an ableist joke by the 1975 frontman.

Healy said that the kiss between himself and his bandmate “was not a stunt simply meant to provoke the government” but an “ongoing part of the 1975 stage show which had been performed many times prior.” (Healy has indeed made out with his bandmate on stage previously. He’s also regularly brought fans onstage for kisses during shows, and kissed a male security guard at a June show.)

“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, adding that he and at least one other bandmate were allegedly “briefly imprisoned” by Malaysian authorities.

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Originally Appeared on them.