Singapore: Taylor Swift has been taking a well-earned breather the last couple of days after knocking over the first block of her six sold-out Singapore shows. Alas,there have been no public sightings. Presumably,she is hunkered down in her hotel suite getting over a little cough that has sent local Swifties into a fretful TikTok tizz that Tay Tay is burning herself out.
The parallel Swift story,however,which surely no foreign affairs think-tanker marked on their 2024 geopolitical calendar,has been rolling without a break. Singapore,it seems,has peeved some of its neighbours (notably Thailand and the Philippines) by paying the megastar’s team for.
This has meant no Swift for Bangkok or Manila – or anywhere in South-East Asia,bar the rich and evidently crafty city state at the end of the Malay peninsula.
Accordingly,Swifties have come from everywhere to spend their hard-saved cash on Singapore’s extraordinary food scene and expensive hotels. I happened to be on a flight from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur on Sunday morning,when it quickly became evident the plane was filled with homeward-bound concertgoers from Swift’s first three-hour show the previous night.
Her hits clamoured from tinny mobile phone speakers as passengers re-watched their concert footage with girlfriends and partners. By the time we’d reached cruising height,most of the tuckered out Swifties were asleep,including my Filipino row-mate Sean. When he woke up,I asked him if it was frustrating to have to travel so far and spend so much (undisclosed) money in Singapore. “Oh,quite so,” he said. “And now all the South-East Asian countries are arguing about it.”
Singapore is reported to have paid Taylor Swift at least $US3 million to ensure she did not perform anywhere else in South-East Asia.Jason South
In a business forum speech last month,Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin saw fit to reveal he had inside information that the pesky Singaporeans were paying Swift up to $US3 million ($4.6 million) per show to keep her for themselves. (Singapore has denied this figure,and there is speculation that amount was the entire exclusivity fee,rather than for each show. Either way,it’s a secret.)
Philippines MP Joey Salceda followed up by calling on his nation’s foreign service to issue Singapore a please explain. The great Singaporean swifty was counter to the “consensus-based relations and solidarity on which the ASEAN was founded”,he said. “Our countries are good friends. That’s why actions like that hurt.”
Singapore responded that there was nothing “unfriendly” about the deal,while a spokesman for Thailand’s Thavisin sought to cool things down on Wednesday by saying that,of course,silly,Thailand was not being jealous or critical. “They dared to think,and they dared to do it,” the spokesman said. Essentially,good on them.
In the new field of Taylor Swift geostrategy,Singapore has played an exceptional hand. The government sent a delegation headed by Culture Minister Edwin Tong to the US back in February last year to woo her people.
But everyone is wiser now. The Swift deal may set off a cultural arms race across South-East Asia of competing inducements for future touring stars. “If I had known this[about the fee],I would have brought the shows to Thailand,” Thavisin told the business forum crowd.
The South-East Asia region is broadly on decent terms,as we can see from the special this week,but it is not without its tensions. (Penny Wong says Swift has not been mentioned in any of her meetings). Against a backdrop of such serious matters as,international rivalry for the Swift juggernaut feels curiously fun.
By any measure,and even with some diplomatic skin-grazing,Singapore’s Taylor Swift foray has been a winner.The Straits Times reported that economists predict a $350 – $500 million direct cash injection from the Tay Tay tourists.
But perhaps even more important for the government is branding. Swift’s exclusive concerts position Singapore as the region’s premier destination. If other cities were as good,she would have gone there too,or so goes the unspoken messaging.
Of the more than 300,000 tickets sold for the concerts at Singapore National Stadium,as many as 120,000 may have gone to foreigners. My flight on Sunday seemed to contain mostly Filipinos connecting through Kuala Lumpur on their way home.
“The Philippines is one of the highest streamers of Taylor Swift songs,” complained Abi,who had travelled to Singapore with Kelvin for the shows. The pair had been saving since July last year,she said. Meanwhile,Kelvin had a plea for Swift – or perhaps for Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos Jr:“Please,please next time come to the Philippines”.
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