The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas shares his thoughts on The 1975’s Malaysia LGBTQ controversy

26 July, 2023

The Strokes‘ Julian Casablancas has shared his thoughts on The 1975‘s recent controversy in Malaysia that saw them banned for taking a stance on LGBTQ matters on stage.

Last weekend, The 1975’s set at Good Vibes Festival in Kuala Lumpur was cut short – and later, the rest of the festival was cancelled – after frontman Matty Healy criticised anti-LGBTQ laws and kissed bassist Ross MacDonald onstage.

During their headline performance on Friday (July 21), Healy called out the Malaysian government and said: “I do not see the point of inviting The 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with.”

Since then, The 1975 have been banned from performing in the country, and the frontman has received backlash from Malaysia’s LGBTQ+ community, claiming that his actions undermined years of action by local activists.

The 1975 are now also potentially facing a class action lawsuit by Malaysian artists and festival vendors over the festival’s cancellation.

Matty Healy and Ross Macdonald of The 1975
Matty Healy and Ross Macdonald of The 1975 performing at Parklife Festival 2023. Credit: Shirlaine Forrest/Getty Images

The Strokes’ Casablancas, who was unable to perform at Good Vibes Festival with his band, shared on social media this weekend that they are currently working on a way to perform in Malaysia.

The frontman then elaborated on his thoughts regarding the controversy in an Instagram reply, writing: “it def helped the white outsider awareness yes, for sure… i felt the same. had no idea. but when you look into it, it likely will change little to nothing in Malaysia. it’s like saying you helped awareness of injustices in n korea … not one of those situations where twitter pressure’s gonna work, they don’t care, govt is intense there.”

In another comment, Casablancas went into more depth about his thoughts, acknowledging that he thinks Healy meant “a positive thing”, initially agreeing it was “good to raise awareness”. But he said one should “be knowledgeable and respectful toward the culture you’re not familiar with”.

He went on: “many thing to fix but we should be strategic was all… wasn’t commenting on the thing – just an outider [sic] thinking it would make any difference in Malaysia… it appears to have more negative consequences… your nit [sic] allowed to show straight public kissing affection there i believe… it’s a different world not his job to come fix then bail… if he stayed and went to jail then damn, respect. but i think he just made a joke/ laughted [sic] and flew home first class imm guessing.”

The musician continued to clarify his thoughts, sharing that “taking things out of context” and suggesting “julian angry at so and so” is a “prime example of internet perpetuation mass ignorance”.

In another comment, Casablancas said that he thought “defending him as heroic was a bit white”.

The 1975 also cancelled their Indonesia and Taiwan shows after getting banned from Malaysia, while, as of Tuesday (July 25) 18 police reports have been filed over the incident.

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