Rina Sawayama recently criticized fellow musician Matty Healy during one of her concerts. Sawayama called out the 1975 singer’s racist behavior while also noting that he owns her masters.
The call-out came as she introduced her song “STFU!”
“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,” she said, according to The Guardian.
Sawayama was seemingly referencing Healy’s appearance on The Adam Friedland Show. During a discussion of Ice Spice, Healy laughed as the podcast hosts mocked her accent as well as other accents like Chinese, Hawaiian, and Japanese accents, Pitchfork reports. Healy also admitted to watching porn where Black women are degraded by White men.
According to Vulture, Healy apologized for the comments but later said that the controversy “doesn’t matter.”
Sawayama is currently signed to record label Dirty Hit, The Guardian reports. Dirty Hit also works with the 1975, and Healy was the label’s president from December 2018 to April 2023.
Healy and the label have not yet commented on Sawayama’s statements.
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