Concerts with foreign artists to have 'kill switch' following The 1975's GVF antics

Malaysia's Communications and Digital Ministry (KKD) has reportedly told organisers of concerts with foreign artists to create a "Kill Switch" to avoid a repetition of the incident by The 1975 at the Good Vibes Festival 2023 (GVF) earlier this year. 

The kill switch will stop a concert by cutting its power supply, said Deputy Minister Teo Nie Ching during a question-and-answer session at Dewan Rakyat, according to Malay Mail.

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She also reportedly explained that the Royal Malaysia Police has always assisted the ministry in doing background checks of foreign artists to prevent them from promoting negative sentiments in Malaysia.

Moving forward, Puspal (the central committee for applications for filming and performances by foreign artistes), will have committee members stationed at concerts for monitoring purposes. They will be accompanied by local authorities, said Teo.

The KKD hopes that with these stricter guidelines, they can ensure that performances by foreign artists will adhere to Malaysia’s culture.

These stricter measures were a result of the cancellation of GVF in July when British band The 1975’s lead singer Matty Healy, went on an expletive-laden rant against Malaysia’s anti-LGBTQ laws. His rant culminated in a prolonged kiss between him and his bandmate, Ross Macdonald.

As a result, Malaysia’s Communications and Digital minister, Fahmi Fadzil made the decision to cancel the whole festival, a decision which had a reverberating impact on multiple stakeholders who were involved in the organisation of the festival such as vendors, performers and more.

The incident has since continued to plague Malaysia. In fact, just last month, Healy defended his actions in a 10-minute speech at a concert in Texas. Healy addressed the criticisms he received for kissing his bandmate at the festival in spite of Malaysia's politics. 

He defended the action by saying that the kiss between himself and Ross MacDonald was a routine part of the show, which they did not intend to change to suit the country they were performing in. He emphasised that the outrage following the kiss was puzzling to him as the band simply sought to remain consistent with its stage routine.

"We did not choose to change our set that night, to play pro-freedom of speech, pro-gay songs. To eliminate any routine part of the show in an effort to appease the Malaysian party's bigoted views of LGBTQ+ people would be a passive endorsement of those politics," he said. 

Related articles:
How The 1975's antics have 'threatened the stability' of Malaysia's live entertainment scene
The 1975 continues its attacks on MY: Why the country's economy might be at stake
The 1975 to pay over RM12.3m in damages to GVF organisers or risk UK lawsuit