The 1975 frontman Matty Healy’s Twitter account has been deactivated following backlash to a post he made about George Floyd with a link to the song ‘Love It If We Made It’.
Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American, died in Minnesota in the custody of local police on Monday, May 25. A clip surfaced earlier this week showing a Minnesota officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck. His death has sparked international outrage, ongoing protests in the state and calls for justice from numerous artists and public figures.
On May 28, Healy responded to the event, tweeting, “If you truly believe that ‘ALL LIVES MATTER’ you need to stop facilitating the end of black ones.”
Healy also shared a link in the post to ‘Love It If We Made It’, which features the lyrics “saying controversial things just for the hell of it / Selling melanin and then suffocate the black men / Start with misdemeanours and we’ll make a business out of them.”
Healy then faced backlash from followers who accused the singer of using Floyd’s death to promote The 1975’s new album, ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’, which was released last Friday.
Per the Independent, Healy then tweeted, “Sorry I did not link my song in that tweet to make it about me it’s just that the song is literally about this disgusting situation and speaks more eloquently than I can on Twitter.” His account has now been deactivated.
This comes just a day after The 1975 released a video for the opening track of their new album, which features environmental activist Greta Thunberg.