Taylor Swift’s Singapore shows spark anger in Southeast Asia

Taylor Swift has descended on Southeast Asia, or at least a small part of it: Her six sold-out shows are held in Singapore, the region’s richest country.

Many of his fans in this part of the world that is home to more than 600 million people are disappointed. But the Singapore leg of Ms Swift’s hugely popular Eras Tour, which kicked off last weekend and ends on Saturday, is a gentle coup and a boost to the country’s post-pandemic economic recovery.

The shows – and the undisclosed price Singapore paid to host them – have also generated diplomatic tensions with two of its neighbors, Thailand and the Philippines.

Last month, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin publicly said that Singapore had paid Ms. Swift up to $3 million per show on the condition that she not perform anywhere else in Southeast Asia. A Filipino lawmaker later said it was not “what good neighbors do.”

Singapore pushed back. First, his culture minister said the real value of the exclusivity deal – which he refused to name – was “nowhere so high.” The country’s former ambassador-at-large then called these criticisms “sour grapes.” And on Tuesday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told reporters he did not consider the deal diplomatically “hostile.”

But that didn’t appease the discouraged fans.

“I sometimes wonder, ‘When will I get to experience this?'” Sherin Nya Tamara, 26, told a Swift fan in Jakarta, Indonesia, who has loved the singer since 2011 but has never seen her perform live. “I was hoping there would be additional dates and Jakarta would be included, but no.”

As Southeast Asian governments grapple with tensions over the South China Sea and the aftermath of a brutal war in Myanmar, among other serious issues, the controversy over Ms. Swift’s broadcasts in Singapore is “pretty refreshing,” said Susan Harris Rimmer. , a law professor who has studied soft power in the region.

“It’s nice to see them arguing about something so fun, I suppose, instead of really, really difficult things,” added Professor Harris Rimmer, who teaches at Griffith University in Australia. “But it shows that there are tensions, jealousies and rivalries.”

Ms. Swift’s concerts in Singapore, which follow her stops in Japan and Australia, would have been a big affair anyway. But they took on geopolitical overtones last month, when Mr Srettha told a business forum that Singapore had paid the artist up to $3 million per show to ensure he performed would act as his only tour stop in Southeast Asia.

Mr. Srettha said that he had learned the details of the Singapore grant awarded to the artist by the concert organizer, AEG Presents. Representatives for the developer and Ms. Swift did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

An exclusivity agreement around a concert, a kind of non-compete agreement known as a “radius clause,” is common practice in the music industry, said Susan Abramovitch, head of the division entertainment and sports law at the international law firm Gowling WLG.

“That being said, this territorial exclusivity is more typically measured in hundreds of thousands of a city rather than covering entire neighboring countries,” she said, adding that the scope of the Singapore agreement was a sort of “Taylor-style expansion” of the agreement. industry standard.

This proposal was not well received outside Singapore.

Late last month, a Filipino lawmaker made headlines by saying that he had asked the country’s foreign ministry to discuss the exclusivity clause with the Singapore government, saying it had come at the expense of neighboring countries.

Rep. Joey Salceda said this week that he raised the issue after realizing how difficult and expensive it would be for Filipinos, including his own staff members, to attend the concerts.

“The core principles of ASEAN are solidarity and consensus,” he said in an interview, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. “What happened?” “They even used their tourism office to block other countries. »

Asked on Tuesday about the value of the subsidy, the Singapore government did not respond directly to the question. But the Tourist Board and the Ministry of Culture said in a joint statement that Ms Swift’s concerts, for which more than 300,000 tickets were sold, were likely to “generate significant benefits” for the national economy .

Prime Minister Lee was also asked about the subsidy at an ASEAN conference in Australia on Tuesday. He said it had been funded by a post-Covid tourism recovery effort and that he did not view the exclusivity clause as being “hostile” to other countries.

“If we hadn’t made such an arrangement, would she have come elsewhere in Southeast Asia or other places in Southeast Asia? he said, speaking in Melbourne. “Maybe, maybe not.”

News of the regional reaction to the grant was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal, The diplomat and other media.

Professor Harris Rimmer said that, financial incentives aside, Singapore is a logical place for Swift to perform in Southeast Asia, partly because it is safe for young female fans and has excellent transport links with the rest of the region. She said Ms Swift’s glamorous mystique also fits well with Singapore’s efforts to present itself as the “glamor kitten of Asia”.

“I don’t think she needs Singapore’s money at this stage,” she added.

Some Swifties have made peace with the singer’s limited itinerary in their area. Above all.

Jose Bunachita, 30, a writer from the Philippine city of Cebu, said he saw Ms. Swift in Japan last month and that her 11-day trip there cost about $1,500. “I had the time of my life singing my heart out,” he said.

Still, he said, “I also feel like it would have been a more fun experience if the majority of the audience had been fellow Filipino Swifties.”

Sui-Lee Wee reports contributed.