The 1975’s frontman Matty Healy defied the UAE’s strict anti-LGBTQ laws when he kissed a male fan onstage during the band’s performance in Dubai.
Last Wednesday, the English pop rock band were giving their first concert in the United Arab Emirates at the Coca-Cola Arena show. While they were playing “Loving Someone”, Healy stepped off the stage to greet a fan who shouted “Marry Me”. Healy then hugged the man before kissing him on the lips and going back to the stage.
“Thank you Dubai you were so amazing. I don’t think we’ll be allowed back due to my ‘behaviour’ but know that I love you and I wouldn’t have done anything differently given the chance again… But who knows maybe they will let me back in let’s just wait and see :)” Healy posted after the show on his Twitter account.
Homosexuality is illegal in the UAE and punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Healy’s action was a protest against the country homophobic laws, as he was reported to remember the audience “we’re all human, right?” after he kissed the fan.
Healy has always been very open about his political ideas. At this year’s BRIT Awards, he called out male misogynists during an acceptance speech and, a year ago, the band made a generous donation to help open the first LGBTQ center in London.
He hasn’t always got it right though, in an interview with The FADER last year, he was quoted as saying that misogyny “doesn’t happen in rock and roll anymore is because it’s a vocabulary that existed for so long is that it got weeded out. It still exists in hip-hop because [the genre] is so young, but it’ll stop”, for which he later apologised.
Taking to Twitter, he clarified saying, “This bit of me talking in an interview reads as patronising, uninformed and reductive, and to be fair it is. And I’d like to apologise. What I said isn’t correct. And it’s not all a misquote. Just for clarity I said that misogyny wasn’t ALLOWED in rock and roll now days in a way it is in hip hop – not that it doesn’t exist, that’s maybe a misquote as I’m aware of the misogyny in rocknroll”.
#Peace.Love.The1975
