The 1975 has been receiving mixed reactions from online fans after Matty Healy spoke out about Malaysia's anti-LGBTQIA+ stance and kissed his bandmate, Ross MacDonald, which led to the band being banned from the country.
More recently, the Manchester-based group announced that they are canceling the rest of their shows in Asia after the incident.
According to Rolling Stone, The 1975 was scheduled to perform at We the Fest in Jakarta, Indonesia on Sunday and Taipei, Taiwan, on Tuesday, but they decided not to play anymore.
"The 1975 regret to announce that their forthcoming shows in Jakarta and Taipei will no longer be going ahead as planned," they announced in a statement.
The group added that they never take the decision to cancel any performance lightly and they are looking forward to seeing and playing for their fans in the said cities.
"Due to current circumstances, it is impossible to proceed with the scheduled shows," they added.
As of this writing, the band has yet to reveal the exact reason why they're not playing gigs in the countries.
Matty Healy Continues to Slam Malaysia on Social Media
The recent news comes after Matty Healy, despite being banned in Malaysia after his controversial remarks, continued to take a dig at the country on social media.
Taking to his official Instagram stories, the musician shared a series of photos with Ross MacDonald, The 1975's bassist whom he kissed on stage during their show in Kuala Lumpur.
He also shared a picture of a map of Malaysia then added a hat on top of it.
"Ok well why don't you try and not make out with Ross for 20 years. Not as easy at it looks," he wrote in the caption.
In addition, he also shared a video, which later got deleted, of Christopher Hitchen's speech that talks about homosexuality not just being a form of sex but rather a form of love.
The 1975 Gets Banned in Malaysia After Matty Healy Remarks, Ross MacDonald Kiss
The 1975 was among the performers for the Good Vibes Festival in the country. While performing at their set, Matty Healy told the crowd that he made a mistake of not checking the booking of the shows and didn't see the point of inviting the group to a country that has laws against the LGBTQIA+ community.
The singer continued to say "sorry" if his statement offends some of the crowd or religious people, adding, your government are a bunch of f****** r***. I don't care anymore."
Good Vibes Festival was scheduled to run for the rest of the weekend, but organizers announced its cancelation after the Healy's shocking remarks. The cancellation was a directive from Malaysia's Ministry of Communications and Digital.
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