The Malaysian government have announced concert organisers in the country must have a “kill switch” to cut off performances that break guidelines.
The move follows on from The 1975’s controversial set at Good Vibes Festival, where lead singer Matty Healy criticised the government’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws and kissed bassist Ross McDonald. Shortly afterwards, the set was cut short citing “non-compliance with local performance guidelines”. The remaining two days of the festival were cancelled and the band were banned from the country.
Now, Malaysia is taking further action against foreign bands. Deputy communications and digital minister Teo Nie Ching announced in parliament that concert organisers must have a “kill switch”. “[This] will cut off electricity during any performance if there is any unwanted incident,” she reportedly said. “We hope that with stricter guidelines, foreign artists can adhere to the local culture.”
In a comment to Channel News Asia, Future Sounds Asia (organisers of Good Vibes Festival) said: “We have not seen any decline in interest from foreign artists wanting to perform in Malaysia.
“All foreign artists have been performing in the country with the understanding that they need to adhere to the local performance regulations. After the incident [involving Healy], artists are even more aware of this.”
However, members of Malaysia’s LGBTQ+ community fear that this new government action will worsen the situation in the country.
Thilaga Sulathireh, founder of LGBTQ+ advocacy group Justice for Sisters, told The Telegraph: “This has resulted in some self-censorship and a lot of fear among LGBT people about excessive state actions.”
Healy has responded several times to the incident. He first seemed to poke fun at the controversy at Lollapalooza, and then admitted he thought he and McDonald were going to go to prison: “All I’ll say is that I don’t give a fuck about any white saviour complex bullshit. What I’ll say is that doing the right thing often requires quite a lot of sacrifice and very little reward. And being seen to do the right thing requires very little sacrifice, and that’s when you get all the rewards.
“And me and Ross [MacDonald] nearly shaved our heads because we thought we were going to prison for being f*gs.”
Most recently, Healy gave a lengthy 10-minute speech at their show in Texas, saying he was “pissed off to be frank”, essentially concluding: “The idea that it’s incumbent upon artists to cater to the local sensitivities of wherever they are invited to perform sets a very dangerous precedent.”
