American rock band Green Day, who are now on their concert tour, will be staging their first ever show in Malaysia next year, much to the delight of fans there.
The Grammy-winning trio, consisting of Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tré Cool, will perform at the National Hockey Stadium in Kuala Lumpur on February 18.
According to the band’s Facebook page, its Asia tour will also include shows in Jakarta, Nagoya, Yokohama, and Osaka.
One stop that is surprisingly missing is Singapore.
Western acts typically skip Malaysia in favour of Singapore and this has become a sore point with Malaysian fans.
When the little red dot was announced as the only Southeast Asian stop for Taylor Swift and Deep Purple’s respective concert tours earlier this year, it sparked an outcry by fans. So many were thrilled that Green Day is doing the opposite.
Some Malaysian netizens took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to joke that Green Day has “defied the laws of nature”, saying that this is the first time they’ve heard of a Western act skipping Singapore.
However, some users stated that it could be due to Green Day’s political stance.
“Many Green Day songs revolve around anti-war, anti-dictatorship, chauvinism or dictatorship. The members of the group are also supporters of Palestine, so it makes sense if they skip Singapore because Singapore has diplomatic relations with Israel,” wrote one netizen.
Green Day was supposed to perform at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in March 2020, but the show was cancelled due to the pandemic.
It last performed in Singapore to a full-house crowd at the same venue in 2010.
Formed in 1986, Green Day is one of the world’s best-selling bands of all time, with more than 75 million records sold worldwide.
It is known for hits such as ‘American Idiot’, ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’, ‘Boulevard Of Broken Dreams’, among others.
Photo: Green Day/Facebook