Rina Sawayama calls out Matty Healy at Glastonbury Festival 2023: "I’ve had enough!”
During her set at Glastonbury Festival 2023, Rina Sawayama spoke out against Matty Healy, her labelmate at Dirty Hit Records.
Though she didn’t say his name, Sawayama referenced the controversial comments The 1975 frontman has been a part of in recent months.
Introducing the song "STFU!", she said: “I wrote this next song because I was sick and tired of microaggressions. So, tonight, this song goes out to a white man who watches [pornography series] Ghetto Gaggers and mocks Asian people on a podcast. He also owns my masters. I’ve had enough.”
On the podcast, hosted by Adam Friedland and others, Healy joined in with mockery of the rapper Ice Spice, which poked fun at her imagined accent and heritage, wrongly identified as Chinese, Hawaiian and Inuit. Elsewhere on the podcast, Healy said he watched the racially charged pornography series mentioned by Sawayama, referring to a scene that “brutalised” women.
omfg i love her pic.twitter.com/DxR1O8rAle
— hev (@HURRICANESRINA) June 24, 2023
this is about a racist man who owns the masters of an asian woman who sings about her struggles as a poc, this is bigger than just rina, it's the principle of a racist white man having power over a poc and weaponizing it, not about whether she can buy them back or not or taylor
— margaux ⚔️ (@LUC1DNIGHTM4RE) June 24, 2023
A few months later, at The 1975's show in Auckland, New Zealand, Healy issued a half-assed apology, stating: "Ice Spice, I’m sorry. It’s not because I’m annoyed that me joking got misconstrued. It’s because I don’t want Ice Spice to think I’m a dick. I love you, Ice Spice. I’m so sorry," he said in footage captured at the show."
Further in the apology, he continues: "I'm making jokes about shit because if I don't, then I have to be really sincere and I don't like doing that. I know this is a paradoz but this is really freaking me out and I feel like I need to do this. I am a little bit sorry about shit that I've said – sometimes. I've never meant to hurt anybody, so I just feel a bit bad".
Sawayama is signed to Dirty Hit, a record label that also releases the 1975’s music, and is run by the band’s manager Jamie Oborne. Healy was a director of the company between December 2018 and April 2023.
Glastonbury 2023 takes place from 21-25 June at Worthy Farm. Visit glastonburyfestivals.co.uk for more information.
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