Previously ScandAsia reported that the band “The 1975” received very different reactions, when singer Matty Healy shared a kiss with men during their performances in both Denmark and Malaysia on their latest tour.
In Denmark, the crowd cheered. In Malaysia, the whole festival they played at got cancelled, and the band were asked to pay more than £2 million in damages, for ‘breaking local guidelines.’
Now Healy is ready to speak out about what happened.
He had otherwise been advised not to do so, but he said to their fans on October 9 at the Forth Worth show that he wants to explain his side – because he was pissed off.
They knew who they invited
He started reading from his phone. First he explained that the band was invited by the government to play at the festival, knowing the band’s political views and its routine stage show. Then he said that kissing Ross, his bandmate, was just a part of that stage show – not to provoke the government.
But naturally, he added, the band didn’t take any measurements as to change their set in order to play fewer “pro-gay/freedom of speech” songs.
“To eliminate any routine part of the show in an effort to appease the Malaysian authorities’ bigoted views of LGBTQ people would have been a passive endorsement of those politics”, he elaborated.
“We have no power at all to enforce our will on anyone in Malaysia. In fact, it was the Malaysian authorities who briefly imprisoned us.”
Source: Breaking News.ie
