What did Matty Healy say about Ice Spice? The 1975 frontman’s controversies explored as he issues apologies at Hollywood Bowl

Musician Matty Healy and his band The 1975 performed at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California on Monday, October 2, 2023, as part of their ongoing "Still...At Their Very Best" tour. During the performance, Healy apologized for the comments he made about the rapper Ice Spice.

"Because some of my actions have hurt some people, I apologise to those people, and I pledge to do better moving forward," he said.

The British singer-songwriter appeared on the Adam Friedland Podcast on February 9, 2023. During the same, he and the host Friedland made disparaging comments about Ice Spice, her heritage, and her body. The two even called her a "Chubby Chinese lady" and an "Inuit Spice Girl." They also went on to imitate the Hawaiin, Chinese, and Japanese accents in a derogatory manner.

The singer's actions resulted in widespread backlash at the time with netizens calling him out for his statements. He was also removed from his position as the director of Dirty Hit, according to the Companies Information Service website of the UK government.

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More about Matty Healy's apology for his comments

In his apology, Matty Healy argued that during his appearance on the podcast, he was just playing the role of a "rockstar." He said that his comments weren't meant to be offensive to anyone.

"I think it's also important that I express my intentions, so everybody knows that there is no ill will coming from me.You see, as an artist, I want to create an environment for myself to perform where not everything that I do is taken literally," Healy said.

Matty Healy continued to say that he often "kind of performed exaggerated versions" of himself on other stages. He noted that there were times when this was an "often misguided attempt" to fulfill the role of a character role of the "21st-century rock star."

"Sometimes playing pretend is the only way you can truly find out who you are, and you could probably also say that men would rather do offensive impressions for attention than go to therapy," Healy added.

Matty Healy had previously brushed off his actions, claiming "it doesn't matter" and proclaiming that his actions had been "exaggerated" by his critics, in an interview with The New Yorker.

While Healy's comments about Ice Spice caused outrage among netizens, the rapper also responded to the controversy. In an exclusive interview with Variety, she said that Healy had apologized to her in private. Ice Spice said that when she heard the podcast, she was confused, especially after she heard what the two men had called her.

“Because I heard ‘chubby Chinese lady’ ...I’m like, ‘Huh? What does that even mean?’ First of all, I’m thick. What do you mean Chinese? What? But then they apologized or whatever...I saw him at Galthier party a couple days ago...He apologized to me a bunch of times. We’re good,” the rapper said.

Over the past few years, Matty Healy has been under constant controversy especially when he was spotted making the Nazi salute at a concert in January. He was also embroiled in controversy when he wore merchandise belonging to The Red Scare podcast which had in the past disparaged Healy's alleged girlfriend Taylor Swift. It is worth noting that neither Swift nor Healy have confirmed if they were ever dating.