Malaysian government cancels festival due to controversial conduct by The 1975 vocalist

British band The 1975 was headlining day one of Good Vibes Festival on Friday, 21 July 2023, when vocalist Matty Healy had an onstage outburst.

In his profanity-laden rant, Healy claimed to have made a “mistake” by booking a show in a country that controls “who we can have sex with.”

He continues on to say “Unfortunately you don't get a set of loads of uplifting songs because I'm fucking furious, and that's not fair on you, because you're not representative of your government.”

Though Malaysia employs a dual justice system of secular laws (criminal and civil) and sharia laws (for Muslim citizens), the country promotes no LGBT rights and there's even a potential for capital punishment towards homosexuality. Penalties can lead to up to 20 years imprisonment with caning and fines, with additional charges in Islamic court.

After the outburst, the band’s bassist, Ross MacDonald, approached Healy and the two of them publicly kissed on stage in an act of protest during their rendition of ‘I Like America & America Likes Me’.

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Based on netizens’ videos, the band left the stage after performing the next song ‘I Couldn’t Be More In Love’. Healy briefly returned only to say “Alright, we gotta go. We just got banned from Kuala Lumpur.”

The stage continued to be bandless despite people in the crowd chanting “Bring them back! Bring them back!”, which then turned into “Refund! Refund! Refund!” once they figured out the set had been officially stopped.

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Malaysia’s Minister of Communications and Digital, Fahmi Fadzil, has ordered the immediate cancellation of the festival, which was supposed to go on until Sunday, July 23.

The festival, which was celebrating its tenth anniversary, has complied, issuing an official statement on official social media accounts.

In addition, the Central Agency for Application for Filming and Performance by Foreign Artistes (Puspal) has blacklisted The 1975 from performing in Malaysia, also filing a police report against the band and event organiser for “non-compliance with local performance guidelines”.

Amira Waworuntu is Mixmag Asia’s Managing Editor, follow her on Instagram.