Rina Sawayama calls out Matty Healy over controversial podcast remarks

British Japanese singer Rina Sawayama recently made comments during her Glastonbury Festival set seemingly directed at Matty Healy, following controversial remarks he made during a podcast in February.

Sawayama, during her performance, explained that she wrote her song "STFU" because she was fed up with microaggressions. She then referred to a white man who watches "Ghetto Gaggers" and mocks Asian people on a podcast, believed to be a reference to Healy, who also happens to own her masters.

In February, Healy appeared on The Adam Friedland Show podcast, where he laughed along as the hosts used stereotypical accents to imitate rapper Ice Spice, who has a Black father and a mother of Dominican descent. The podcast episode, in which Healy and the hosts also joked about racially charged pornography, received criticism, and Healy later issued an apology during a concert in New Zealand.

Sawayama is signed to Dirty Hit, a label managed by The 1975's manager, Jamie Oborne, with Healy having served as a director until April 2023. The comments made by Sawayama at Glastonbury reflect her dissatisfaction with the situation.

Ice Spice, the rapper mentioned in the podcast, recently performed alongside Healy's then-rumored girlfriend, Taylor Swift, at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. However, Swift and Healy reportedly ended their relationship shortly after the song's release, with sources confirming that they were never heavily involved romantically.