SETTLE DOWN

The 1975 Scraps Pair of Shows After Matty Healy Kiss Controversy

The band called it “impossible to proceed” with shows in Taiwan and Indonesia “due to current circumstances.”

The 1975 said on Sunday that they had canceled shows in Taiwan and Indonesia following a confrontation with the Malaysian government over its stance on the LGBTQ+ community. The British band had been scheduled to perform at Jakarta’s We the Fest on Sunday and the Taipei Music Center on Tuesday, but announced in a brief statement that those gigs had been called off. “Unfortunately, due to current circumstances, it is impossible to proceed with the scheduled shows,” the statement said. The move comes in the wake of a Friday set at Malaysia’s Good Vibes Festival where frontman Matty Healy kissed a male bandmate onstage after criticizing the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws, saying he was “fucking furious.” The government slammed Healy’s actions as “very rude” and banned the pop group from performing in Malaysia. Though same-sex marriage remains illegal in Muslim-majority Indonesia, Taiwan was the first country in Asia to legalize it, and its stance on LGBTQ+ rights is largely viewed as one of the most progressive in Asia.