English pop singer Jade Thirlwall has called out The 1975 frontman Matty Healy for his attitudes towards music and politics.
The former Little Mix member has never shied away from sharing her opinions on politics, even when it caused waves with her label. Most recently, she garnered headlines for leading her audience in a chant of “Fuck you” at Glastonbury Festival to protest against right-wing populist political party Reform UK, “silencing protest” and “justifying genocide”.
In a very candid interview with The Guardian, the now solo performer opened up about why she feels so strongly about advocating for the causes she believes in.
“I was ready for a backlash from the right kind of people,” she told the publication.
“I saw a lot of people saying ‘Your Glastonbury set was really good until you got political’ or ‘I used to be a fan of yours until you got political’. But, hun, you were never a fan, because I’ve always piped up.”
With a determination to use her platform for good, Jade went on to chastise fellow British musician Matty Healy for his deliberately quiet political position.
“I don’t think you can be a pop artist and cover your eyes,” Jade continued.
“I saw Matty Healy say that he doesn’t want to be political, which I found disappointing,” she told the outlet. “It’s very easy for someone who’s white and straight and very privileged to say that. Good for you, hun!”
Back in June, The 1975 also performed at Glastonbury. While many acts like Jade used the platform to make political statements, he made a speech about why he and the band would not.
“People who are watching this may — I don’t know… They may be disappointed in the lack of politics in this show and our forthcoming shows and probably our future shows. I want you to know that is a conscious decision,” he said, per Variety.
“We honestly don’t want our legacy to be one of politics. We want it to be that of love and friendship. I’m not trying to be too earnest, but you can go out into the world and there’s loads of politics everywhere. We don’t need more politics. We need more love and friendship.”
While a message of love and friendship is always lovely, it is certainly a big ol’ cop out for the Glastonbury stage, if you ask me.
Matty Healy says he doesn’t want the 1975’s legacy to be “one of politics” but of “friendship and love” at #Glastonbury. pic.twitter.com/ZNnexJ1nte
— Variety (@Variety) June 27, 2025
The irony of Matty’s statement is that he certainly has been political in the past. In 2023, he made a statement against Malaysia’s anti-LGBT+ laws by kissing his bandmate Ross MacDonald, causing the band to be banned from the country and the three-day Good Vibes Festival to be cancelled.
He also reportedly performed a Nazi salute on stage as he sang the lyric, “Unrequited house with seven pools / thank you, Kanye, very cool” from the track “I’d Love It If We Made It”.
As you’d expect, he was completely slammed for his behaviour. Perhaps “statements” like this have seen the frontman’s decision to switch to an apolitical stance.
Meanwhile, Jade has always been outspoken about her political views — even when she knew it would put her in her label’s bad books.
In 2015, Jade famously hijacked Little Mix’s official X (formerly Twitter) account to protest the UK parliament voting to bomb Isil targets in Syria. While the 32-year-old admits she got in “a bit of trouble” for the wayward tweet, she has no regrets.
“I felt very passionate about it. I’m no expert in politics, but I’ve always taken an interest,” she explained.
“Around 9/11, I saw first‑hand the Islamophobia that my grandad experienced, and as someone of Arab heritage, I’ve seen people turning a blind eye to the Middle Eastern tragedy. What’s quite funny is that we didn’t have individual Twitter accounts, and we each had to sign off tweets from the Little Mix account with our names.
So I did my tweet about Syria and ended it with ‘xxJadexx’”.
Truly saddened and ashamed by the vote tonight. So, so sorry to the innocent people of Syria xxjadexx https://t.co/gdfskg2FgM
— Little Mix (@LittleMix) December 3, 2015
They really are on opposite ends of the spectrum, hey?
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