Matthew Healy of The 1975 performs on Day 3 of the 2023 Outside Lands Festival at Golden Gate Park on August 13, 2023 in San Francisco, California.
Steve Jennings/WireImage
Following their controversial performance at Malaysia’s Good Vibes Festival, The 1975 can’t seem to escape the discourse surrounding LGBTQ activism in music.
During the band’s July 21 headlining performance at the festival, lead singer Matty Healy decided to protest Malaysia’s anti-LGBTQ laws in a fiery speech to those in the audience. “I’m sure a lot of you are gay and progressive and cool,” he told the crowd. “I’ve done this before. I’ve gone to a country where it’s — I don’t know what it f–king is. Ridiculous. F–king ridiculous to tell people what they can do with that and that. If you want to invite me here to do a show, you can f–k off. I’ll take your money, you can ban me.”
Healy’s statement, as well as his on-stage kiss with bandmate Ross MacDonald, ended up getting the band’s set cut short; shortly after, the rest of the festival was canceled due to the incident. Now, Future Sound Asia — the Malaysian organizer of the festival — is seeking $2.7 million in damages from the band for a breach of contract.
The event’s organizers are not the only ones calling out the band — while some have praised Healy’s statement of support for the community, many LGBTQ people in Malaysia have called out Healy’s actions as counterproductive, claiming the kiss and subsequent speech stemmed from a “white savior complex,” and insisting that the singer was “ignorant to the actual experience of the LGBT community in Malaysia.”
With so much discussion around The 1975’s actions on stage at the Good Vibes Festival, Billboard is taking a look back at six other instances when artists took aim at anti-LGBTQ policies while onstage. Take a look at examples from Lady Gaga, Little Mix, Måneskin and more below:
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2012: Lady Gaga Challenges Russia to “Arrest Me”
Image Credit: Visual China Group/Getty Images When Lady Gaga stepped onto the stage in St. Petersburg back in 2012, she knew that she was at risk — the city had passed a law banning “homosexual propaganda,” the definition of which included “public actions directed at the propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgenderism among minors.” At the time, Russia at large was considering enacting similar, broader legislation, which ultimately succeeded in 2013.
So, Gaga decided not to spare her words. Holding her wrists together above her head during her December 2012 show, the singer declared that “I believe men and women deserve to love each other equally.” Then, practically skipping down her catwalk, she offered a dare to any government officials listening: “Cuff me, Russia! Arrest me! I don’t give a f–k!” While Gaga was not arrested or fined for the incident, the promoters of her show in St. Petersburg were later hit with a small fine of 20,000 rubles.
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2019: Little Mix Wave the Pride Flag During Dubai Show
Image Credit: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images When it came time for British girl group Little Mix to perform their fan-favorite track “Secret Love Song” at a 2019 concert in Dubai, the quartet decided to make the implicit lyrics more explicit. As the group sang “Why can’t you hold me in the street?/ Why can’t I kiss you on the dance floor,” a large rainbow flag filled up the screens behind them, much to the crowd’s delight.
It was an especially bold move since homosexuality itself is illegal in Dubai, as well as the rest of the United Arab Emirates. In a 2021 op-ed written for Metro, Jade Thirlwall said that she and her fellow bandmates were “s–tting ourselves that we’d get arrested” for the stunt.
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2019: Matty Healy Shares a Same-Sex Kiss in Dubai
Image Credit: Sergione Infuso/Corbis/Getty Images No, Malaysia’s Good Vibes Festival was not the first time that Matty Healy protested anti-LGBTQ laws by sharing a smooch with a man during a show. Back in 2019, during the group’s show in Dubai, Healy ventured into the crowd while performing “Loving Someone,” and gave a male fan a kiss on the lips.
In an interview the following year with The Sunday Times, Healy admitted that he “felt pretty irresponsible” for the kiss in retrospect, but that he wouldn’t stop advocating for the queer community. “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,” he said. “Those are the fundamental things I stand for.”
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2019: Rammstein Guitarists Kiss in Moscow
Image Credit: Elena di Vincenzo/Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images Gaga is far from the only performer to call out Russia’s anti-LGBTQ laws while on stage in Russia — during an Aug. 2019 concert in Moscow, guitarists Paul Landers and Richard Kruspe of German rock group Rammstein took a moment during their show to share a kiss on stage while performing their song “Ausländer.” Many fans and critics took the kiss as a defiant protest of the country’s sweeping “gay propaganda” law passed in 2013.
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2021: Måneskin Members Lock Lips to Protest Poland’s “LGBT-Free Zones”
Image Credit: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic Shortly after winning the Eurovision song contest, rock band Måneskin appeared at Poland’s Polsat SuperHit Festiwal in 2021. In the middle of their performance of “I Wanna Be Your Slave,” lead singer Damiano David gave guitarist Thomas Raggi a kiss, telling the audience that “we think that everyone should be allowed to do this without any fear.”
The kiss came as multiple small towns in Poland declared themselves “LGBT-free zones,” claiming that the “ideology” of the LGBTQ community would not be a part of their municipalities. These laws are largely symbolic and unenforceable, but still create a culture of fear for queer and trans people living in Poland.
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2023: Boygenius Dress in Drag & Say “F–k You” to Tennessee Governor Bill Lee
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Variety Tennessee’s “drag ban” may have been deemed unconstitutional in a federal court back in early June, but that certainly didn’t stop Boygenius from giving a big middle-finger to Gov. Bill Lee during their 2023 Pride concert in Nashville. All three members — Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker — appeared on stage wearing exaggerated drag makeup and glittering outfits to continue protesting against the state’s attempt to prevent drag artists from performing in public spaces.
“Today I’m so grateful for my life … because I’m content with the person that I am,” Baker told the crowd. “I have a lot of anger for the people that have made me feel small, and feel erased. And I’ve found it’s a really powerful and humiliating tool to make those people f–k off. I would like you to scream so loud that Gov. Lee can hear you.” Bridgers then immediately led the crowd in chanting “F–k Bill Lee” at the top of their lungs.