Matty Healy Still In Trouble Over 2023 'Gay Kiss' In Malaysia: 5 Other Times He's Stirred Up Controversy

Matty Healy, frontman of the British band The 1975, is no stranger to controversy, and his actions at Malaysia's Good Vibes Festival last year have sparked yet another legal and public backlash.

His performance in July 2023, which included an on-stage kiss with a bandmate and a defiant speech criticising Malaysia's anti-LGBT laws, has now led to a lawsuit. Festival organisers are suing the band for £1.9 million ($2.4 million) for breach of contract following Healy's kiss with bassist Ross MacDonald and his profanity-laden remarks.

However, this is far from Healy's first high-profile controversy. Below, we revisit this latest incident and five other times he has made headlines for his actions.

The Legal Fallout from the 'Gay Kiss' in Malaysia

The 1975 performance at the Good Vibes Festival was cut short after Healy made an impassioned speech against Malaysia's harsh anti-LGBT laws. 'When we were booking shows, I wasn't looking into it. I do not see the point of inviting The 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with,' Healy said in his speech, which went viral in 2023.

'Unfortunately, you don't get a set of loads of uplifting songs because I'm [expletive] furious. And that's not fair on you, because you're not representative of your government. Because you're young people, and I'm sure a lot of you are gay and progressive and cool,' the singer continued.

Healy's words were seen as a challenge to the country's strict regulations, which carry penalties of up to 20 years in prison for homosexual acts. Healy's performance also included a kiss with bassist Ross MacDonald, which the organisers have since described as a deliberate violation of festival guidelines.

The festival organisers, Future Sound Asia, are now suing The 1975 for in the UK's High Court £1.9 million (approximately $2.4 million), aiming that the band knowingly breached performance rules.

According to the festival organisers, these performance rules prohibit artists from making political statements, using profanity, or even kissing on stage. They also allege that The 1975 actions were not a spontaneous act of rebellion but a calculated move to provoke.

Despite the legal action, Healy defended his actions. 'The 1975 did not waltz [into] Malaysia unannounced; they were invited to headline a festival by a government who had full knowledge of the band with its well-publicised political views and its routine stage show,' he said during a performance in Dallas.

'Me kissing Ross was not a stunt simply meant to provoke the government. It was an ongoing part of the 1975 stage show, which had been performed many times prior,' the frontrunner explained.

Now this isn't the only controversy Healy and his band have been involved in. Here are some of the most unforgettable:

1. Raw Meat Incident at Madison Square Garden

A few months before that 'Gay Kiss' controversy, Matty Healy made headlines in November 2022 when he chomped down a piece of raw meat during a show at Madison Square Garden.

In a bizarre moment that went viral, a shirtless Healy was seen eating a raw steak in a crass manner on stage. Although intended as a performance piece, this spectacle shocked many viewers and became one of his most talked-about moments.

2. Remarks About Taylor Swift

In 2016, Healy's comments about pop star Taylor Swift raised eyebrows when he referred to the idea of dating her as 'emasculating.' The 'About You' singer said, 'It's not really anything to talk about, because if she wasn't Taylor Swift, we wouldn't be talking about her. She wasn't a big impact on my life. It's just interesting to me how interested the world is about Taylor Swift.'

'And the reason I mention that is because if I had gone out with Taylor Swift I would've been, 'F***ing hell! I am NOT being Taylor Swift's boyfriend,' Healy continued.

The interview gained traction when, in 2023, Swift's relationship with longtime boyfriend Joe Alwyn ended, and rumours about Swift and Healy's romance started surfacing. Although Healy later in his comments, made a quick apology after his remarks, the damage was done, and it caused him a significant media fallout.

3. Kissing Male Fans on Stage

Undoubtedly, Healy has gained a reputation as a rebel, which is often proven in his stage acts. Before the 2023' Gay Kiss' controversy, the singer also shared kisses with his male fans.

Particularly in 2019, during his performance in Dubai, Healy hugged and kissed a man who came to see his concert with a sign saying, 'Marry Me.' His act of kissing a male fan in a country where homosexuality is illegal was widely seen as a form of protest against the UAE's oppressive laws.

While speaking to The Sunday Times, Healy opened up on the incident and said, 'When I got to Japan, I was reading about it, and I felt pretty irresponsible and then a bit, well, 'F*** that'. Of course, I'm not going to put people in danger, but I genuinely want to be an ally for people who don't have a voice if I happen to have this big voice in pop culture. Those are the fundamental things I stand for.'

4. Ice Spice Controversy

In 2023, Healy became the subject of another controversy after making derogatory comments about rapper Ice Spice during an episode of The Adam Friedland Show.

During the podcast, Healy laughed along with the host at jokes about Ice Spice's appearance and her sounding like an 'Inuit Spice Girl' or a 'chubby Chinese lady.' While Healy later apologised, stating that he didn't want to offend her, the incident further tarnished his public image.

Later, while speaking to a publication, Ice Spice expressed that she wasn't personally upset but acknowledged that Healy's remarks were in poor taste. 'When I had heard that little podcast or whatever, I was so confused. Because I heard 'chubby Chinese lady' or some s— like that, and I'm like, 'Huh? What does that even mean?' First of all, I'm thick. What do you mean Chinese? What? But then they apologised or whatever. And the whole time, I didn't really care,' she said.

5. Pornography Scandal

Well, it turned out that Healy's appearance at the Adam Friedland Show didn't do him any good. The podcast stirred up another controversy when an inappropriate comment made by Healy about his experience watching porn erupted in 2023.

During the show, Healy recounted a personal incident in which he was caught watching explicit material on his computer, describing the situation with alarming casualness. 'I was, like, dressed as 'guy who is jacking off,' so I had, like, untucked shirt. Like you said, I think it literally was, like, Ghetto Gaggers was on the TV. It's just somebody just getting, like, brutalised,' he said during the show.

Ghetto Gaggers is an adult content website which is known for featuring the humiliation and brutalisation of mostly Black women.

According to reports, the podcast episode was removed from Spotify because of its offensive content.

Meanwhile, Edmund Cullen KC, the band's lawyer, said the claims against his clients are actually 'bizarre.'

During a hearing on Wednesday, Cullen said, 'The allegations of breaches of a duty of care are not breaches of a duty of care at all. They are breaches of Malaysian statutes and guidelines. That is why this claim is completely artificial against my clients.'

Cullen has also asked the High Court to strike out claims against the individual members.