Matty Healy hit with $2.7 million bill from Malaysian music festival over same-sex kiss
The 1975 are facing a legal threat after an on-stage same-sex kiss prompted a government-mandated shutdown of a music festival
Aux News Matty Healy
Matty Healy and his band The 1975 find themselves staring down a $2.7 million bill this week—or, more accurately, 12.3 million ringgit, accused losses from Future Sound Asia’s Malaysian Good Vibes Festival. That, you may recall, is the music festival Healy shut down pretty much single-tonguedly a few weeks back, when—upon being reminded of Malaysia’s restrictive and oppressive legal strictures on homosexuality—he gave a long rant to his audience, before kissing bandmate Ross MacDonald on the lips. This led, in turn, to the band’s headlining set being abruptly shut down—and then, the next day, organizers announcing that the following days of the festival would also be shuttered, on government demand. (Homosexuality is illegal in Malaysia, with sentences that can include up to 20 years of imprisonment, as well as caning.)
Now, Future Sound Asia is going after The 1975, with ABC News reporting that the organizers have sent a letter declaring a breach of contract to the band, and demanding compensation for the shut-down festival. (Organizers have said they intend to refund festival-goers for their tickets.) Per attorney David Dinesh Mathew, the letter stated that the band had given a pledge to “adhere to all local guidelines and regulations” ahead of the show, and accused them of “use of abusive language, equipment damage, and indecent stage behaviour.”
In his comments to the audience during the show, Healy told the crowd he’d been unaware of Malaysia’s legal attitudes toward homosexuality when he’d first agreed to perform at the festival. As ABC News noted, it’s also not the first time he’s performed this kind of protest on stage; in 2019, he kissed a male fan on stage during a show in the United Arab Emirates, where homosexuality is also illegal.
The incident in Malaysia occurred in Kuala Lumpur on July 21. So far, Healy and The 1975—who canceled several legs of an Asian tour in the aftermath of the incident, but who appeared at Lollapalooza this month—haven’t publicly commented on either the festival, or this new demand for repayment.
47 Comments
“I’m sorry for kissing a man, Malaysia. Here’s your $2.7 million.”
I know enough about this band to know that’s the one thing that won’t happen.
The festival organizers are fining him, not Malaysia. Please read past the headline before commenting.
Maybe he could pay them in Ring-Dings.
2.7 million is a huge chunk of this asshole’s net worth ($15 million if reports are accurate). He’ll definitely feel it.
And how do you think they’re gonna enforce it, by freezing his assets in Malaysia maybe?
I’d like to sue him for the time it’s going to take me to scrub that picture from my retinas and soul.
He’s got a kind of “James Van Der Beek, if you grabbed the skin on the back of his skull and stretched his face back” thing going on.
with a guitar and a wifebeater.
At least he has good taste in guitars, even if their unmemorable music doesn’t take advantage of it.
The technical term for that is “Croydon facelift”.
Ring what?
You’re a one-person comment section.
And I didn’t even have to re-locate to CA on my dime.
You know the writing around here has been pretty wank for a while now; but I must say I really like “single-tonguedly”.
Don’t encourage them
Well, credit where it’s due.
Blind squirrel, nut, etc.
Maybe Malaysia thinks the band is from 1975 when bands actually made that kind of money.
And were good.
“Dear government of Malaysia: If you really wanted $2.7 million from me, you shouldn’t have let me leave the country”.
Funny, but it’s not the government who fined him, it’s the festival organizers. They don’t care whay country he’s in, they’ll get their money.
Is it the government that wants money or the Future Sound Asia’s Malaysian Good Vibes festival organizers?
Yeah, you’re right my bad. I’m just used to it being Malaysia itself being the dick. Either way, I doubt they see a penny.
I’m not saying you should read the articles or anything, but it seems to make a lot more sense that the people who organized the festival are suing because the 1975 broke their contract and caused the entire thing to get shut down rather than the Malaysian government handing out multimillion dollar fines for kissing in public. I mean, I guess you could look at the government canceling the fest as a de facto multimillion dollar fine on the festival organizers and their insurance underwriters…
In case anyone is wondering which Malaysia, it’s the Malaysia where owning a rainbow wristwatch means you go to jail for up to 3 years…
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/10/owners-lgbt-swatch-watches-could-jailed-malaysia
Just cane him and sell it as a livestream. They’ll make their millions from Swifties who feel some schadenfreude about why he’s being punished but are still glad to see him suffer.
I’d rather watch the live broadcast of your execution.
I’ll bite and take your crazy ass out of the greys. Tell me why I deserve public execution and why you would be so depraved as to enjoy witnessing such a thing.
I simply aimed for the same level of vile nastiness you displayed in your original post. But you still don’t see it, so nothing to discuss here.
Do you think I actually desire for that to happen? It was a joke about how Swifties hate this guy but are otherwise lbgtq+ friendly. Or is joking about it deemed by you to be worthy of death? If so, why? A summary call for my execution followed by a refusal to explain why makes me suspect you’re an agent of the Malaysian government who’s jealous they didn’t think of it first.I don’t really think that either. Was that bit worthy of death too?
lol
well, cane him on video and send it to the politicians in Malaysia
not just swifties: anyone with ears
malaysian trump: “we’re going to have the biggest fesitval. the best festival. and matt healy’s going to pay for it”
It’s not like they’re ever gonna play in Malaysia again anyways, so they’ve got no incentive to pay.
Whatever you think about their music, “I can’t go to Malaysia because I’m wanted for railing against their bad laws and kissing a man in front of thousands of people” is pretty punk rock.
So basically it’s okay to be gay in Malaysia as long as you have millions of dollars to throw around?
it’s ok to be anything anywhere if you have millions of munny
For $2.7 mil, you’d hope somebody at least cummed.
When I was in Malaysia, you could get a good cumming for 2.5 Ringo’s!
When in Rome…. well thats what you get when you dont inform yourself about (i.e. disrespect) the country you are touring in.
Relevant information from the ABC News article, since William Hughes can’t even steal/aggregate competently:“The lawyer said FSA will take legal action in the courts of England if the band fails to respond by Monday, a week after the legal letter of claim was sent.”