The 1975, Matty Healy Sued by Malaysian Music Fest Over Protest Kiss

Future Sound Asia, the Malaysian festival organizer behind the Good Vibes Festival, has followed through on its threat to sue the 1975. The organizer is seeking £1.9 million, or $2.4 million, following frontman Matty Healy criticizing the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws onstage and kissing bassist Ross McDonald during the 2023 iteration of the three-day festival, which led to its cancellation, according to Variety.

The band is collectively being sued for breach of contract as Future Sound Asia claims that the group was made aware of the guidelines and prohibitions around its appearance at the festival. The 1975 were reportedly paid $350,000 to perform, but only after the band agreed to abide by the rules of the event in order to have their performance application approved in the first place.

Those guidelines include restrictions on kissing — either each other or members of the audience, both of which Healy has done in the past — as well as using profanity, smoking and drinking on stage, removing clothing, and talking about politics or religion. Healy essentially did all of these things, though the lawsuit states that the 1975 did nearly pull out of their show the night before they were scheduled to perform at the first day of the festival.

Despite feeling as though they “should not perform at the festival,” the band ultimately decided to deliver a different set list accompanied by what the suit describes as a “provocative speech” and actions that “were intended to breach the guidelines.” It also describes Healy and MacDonald’s kiss as a “long pretend passionate embrace,” one planned with “the intention of causing offense and breaching the regulations and the terms of the agreement.”

The festival’s other grievances include a bottle of wine being conveniently placed near the drum kit for Healy, a bit where he appears to “vomit on the stage and/or grunt and spit excessively,” a speech full of profanity, and the organizer’s own festival drone that it claims was intentionally damaged by the band. Future Sound Asia notes in the suit that the 1975 were throughly aware of the festival rules, having previously performed at the event in 2016.

A rep for the 1975 did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.

In August 2023, one month after the event — the remainder of which was canceled following the 1975’s performance — Future Sound Asia ordered the band to pay more than £2 million in damages within seven days or face legal action. The threat of legal action came after news broke that a group of Malaysian musicians and festival vendors were prepping a class action lawsuit against the 1975 for losses incurred from the event’s cancellation.

Last year, Healy claimed that he was told not to talk about the incident, but did so anyway during a performance in Dallas. “Everyone keeps telling me that you can’t talk about Malaysia, don’t talk about what happened in Malaysia, so I’m gonna talk about it at length … I am pissed off, to be frank,” he said in October. “As liberals are so fond of saying,’ silence causes violence, use your platform’ — so we did that. And that is where things got complicated.”