Pop band The 1975’s set stopped in Malaysia after onstage kiss

Good Vibes festival organisers said The 1975’s set was stopped due to ‘non-compliance with local performance guidelines’.

United Kingdom pop band The 1975 had its set at a Malaysian music festival cut short after frontman Matty Healy kissed a male bandmate onstage and criticised the country’s anti-LGBTQ laws.

Homosexuality is a crime in Muslim-majority Malaysia and human rights groups have warned of growing intolerance against the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

In videos posted on social media, Healy was seen kissing bassist Ross MacDonald after giving a profanity-laden speech to the audience at the Kuala Lumpur music festival Good Vibes on Friday night, in which he criticised the Malaysian government’s stance against homosexuality.

He said the band had considered pulling out of the show but did not want to disappoint their fans in Malaysia.

“I made a mistake. When we were booking shows, I wasn’t looking into it,” he said, adding that he did not see the point of “inviting The 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with”.

Healy later cut short the set, telling the crowd: “All right, we gotta go. We just got banned from Kuala Lumpur, I’ll see you later.”

The band could not immediately be reached for comment.

Healy was criticised for kissing a male fan at a 2019 concert in the United Arab Emirates, which also has laws against homosexual acts, according to media reports.

In a statement, the Good Vibes festival organisers said The 1975’s set was stopped due to “non-compliance with local performance guidelines”.

Local newspaper The New Straits Times reported that the organisers were summoned by Malaysia’s Communications and Digital Ministry to explain the events.

Malaysian police told the newspaper that no report had been lodged, but “police will call the organisers soon,” the New Straits Times cited a local police official as saying.

The organisers “took matters into their own hand by stopping the band’s performance midway”, the newspaper said, citing the police official.

Malaysia’s Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil called the band’s performance “very disrespectful” in a Twitter posting, saying he would engage local authorities and summon the festival’s organisers for an explanation.

[Unofficial translation: It’s a very barbaric act. I’ve called the organisers to brief tomorrow, and will be in touch with the authorities to get a full report.]

The incident comes before crucial regional elections that will pit Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s progressive coalition against a mostly conservative ethnic-Malay, Muslim alliance, which has accused Anwar’s government of not doing enough to protect the rights of Muslims in the multiracial country.

The premier has repeatedly said this month that his government would uphold the principles of Islam, state media reported. He has said his administration will not recognise LGBTQ rights.

In May, Malaysian authorities confiscated watches made by the Swiss company Swatch from its “Pride” collection, which celebrates LGBTQ rights.