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The Metamorphosis of Maggie Lindemann
The rising star unpacks the story behind her debut EP,
Paranoia — and, for the first time ever, goes into detail about her detainment in Malaysia two years ago
By
Maggie Lindemann in Los Angeles in April 2021.
Photograph by Kayla James for Rolling Stone. Styling by Emma Collins. Hair by George Fragkioudakis. Tights by LEFTHANDLA.
Two years ago, Maggie Lindemann was in the middle of performing at a club in Kuala Lumpur when three Malaysian police officers pulled her off the stage and arrested her.
The American singer, who was there to play the first show of a headlining tour that June, had landed in Asia just a few days earlier. A team had been waiting for her at the airport, and she’d had no trouble getting through customs or checking into her hotel. “Everything was great,” says Lindemann, now 22. “It was a really nice place, and everything seemed to be taken care of.” What she didn’t know was that there had been a mistake somewhere along the way, leaving her without the appropriate permits for a foreign artist to perform in Malaysia.