UK band The 1975, barred from Malaysia after Taylor Swift’s ex-boyfriend Matt Healy’s same-sex kiss, on ‘indefinite hiatus’

The 1975 announced this week that the band will go on an “indefinite hiatus” from performing after the end of its ongoing tour, which ends in the spring.

The band made the announcement during Tuesday’s performance in Sacramento, California, at the Golden 1 Center, the first stop of its Still … At Their Very Best tour.

“It’s wonderful you’re all here,” the band’s frontman, Matty Healy, told the crowd on Tuesday evening, according to video of the performance. “After this tour, we will be going on an indefinite hiatus with shows, so it’s wonderful to have you guys with us tonight. Thank you so much.”

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Representatives for the 1975 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The 1975’s tour includes shows across North America and Europe. The tour’s final show is scheduled for March 24 in Amsterdam.

The British pop rock band, which formed in 2002, has been performing almost nonstop for the past several years, whether at festivals or on the road for their buzzy At Their Very Best tour, which ran from November 2022 until August. Their performances became viral as Healy regularly kissed doting fans on the lips after serenading them throughout the tour.

Most famously, at a music festival in Malaysia in July, the 1975’s bassist, Ross MacDonald, kissed Healy on the lips after the vocalist blasted the Malaysian government’s anti-LGBTQ laws, such as criminalising same-sex relations.

The crowd cheered on the speech and the kiss, but the set was subsequently cut short by organisers as government officials halted the music festival. The 1975 is now banned from playing in the country.

However, Healy ultimately stole the spotlight throughout tour due to a highly publicised yet ultimately unconfirmed romantic relationship with Taylor Swift, which reportedly came to an end in June.

Swift and Healy sparked romance rumours soon after the “Lavender Haze” hitmaker broke up with her actor boyfriend of six years, Joe Alwyn. Though neither musician publicly confirmed their relationship, Healy attended multiple Swift shows during her sold-out Eras tour – even joining opening act Phoebe Bridgers onstage in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Healy also made headlines for a controversial podcast interview in which he and comedians Nick Mullen and Adam Friedland mocked rapper Ice Spice’s ethnicity. Healy also egged on jokes about Japanese incarceration during World War II and joked about his own sexual behaviour related to a porn website that prominently features Black women.

In April, Healy apologised to Ice Spice during the band’s performance in Auckland, New Zealand, saying his apology was “not because I’m annoyed that me joking got misconstrued. It’s because I don’t want Ice Spice to think I’m a d –. I love you, Ice Spice. I’m so sorry.”