This week, Singapore has Taylor Swift all to herself, and the neighbors are getting upset

Taylor Swift has taken over Southeast Asia, or at least a tiny portion of it: Singapore, the richest country in the region, is the location of all six of her sold-out performances.
In this region of the globe, which is home to over 600 million people, a large number of her followers are dissatisfied. However, Swift’s massively successful Eras Tour, which started last weekend and finishes this Saturday in Singapore, is a soft power coup and a boon to the nation’s post-pandemic economic recovery.

Diplomatic tensions have also arisen between Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines as a result of the events and the secret cost Singapore paid to host them.
According to public statements made by Thailand’s prime minister Srettha Thavisin last month, Swift was paid up to $3 million by Singapore for each performance, provided she didn’t perform anywhere else in Southeast Asia. That was then refuted by a Philippine senator as not being “what good neighbors do.”
Singapore retreated. First, its minister of culture said that the exclusivity agreement’s true worth was “nowhere as high” and he would not reveal it. Subsequently, the nation’s erstwhile ambassador-at-large referred to the critique as “sour grapes.” Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong also told reporters on Tuesday that he did not consider the agreement to be diplomatically “unfriendly.”
But disappointed supporters found no comfort in that.
Swift’s 26-year-old Jakarta, Indonesia, fan Sherin Nya Tamara, who has been admiring the singer since 2011, stated, “I sometimes think, ‘When will I get to experience this?'” “I was hoping there would be additional dates and that Jakarta would be included, but nope.”
According to Susan Harris Rimmer, a law professor who has researched soft power in the region, the controversy surrounding Swift’s Singapore shows is “kind of refreshing” at a time when Southeast Asian governments are dealing with serious issues such as tensions over the South China Sea and the aftermath of a bloody war in Myanmar.
The Australian professor Harris Rimmer said, “It’s nice to see them arguing about something this fun, I guess, instead of really, deeply difficult things.” Rimmer lectures at Griffith University. “But it does show there is tension and jealousy and rivalry.”
Swift would have been well-known regardless of her performances in Singapore, which came after her travels to Japan and Australia. However, last month, they acquired a geopolitical undertone when Srettha revealed at a business gathering that Singapore had paid the singer up to $3 million per concert to ensure that they would be her only Southeast Asian tour dates.
Srettha claimed to have heard from AEG Presents, the event producer, about the specifics of Singapore’s donation to the artist. Requests for comment on Tuesday were not immediately answered by representatives of Swift or the promoter.
According to Susan Abramovitch, director of the entertainment and sports law section at the global law firm Gowling WLG, an exclusivity pact surrounding a concert, a kind of noncompete agreement known as a “radius clause,” is normal practice in the music industry.
The breadth of the Singapore arrangement, she said, was a kind of “Taylor-esque magnification” of the industry norm. “That being said, this territorial exclusivity is typically measured in hundreds of miles from a city rather than covering entire neighboring countries,” she said.
It’s not been well accepted outside of Singapore.
A Philippine legislator made news late last month when he said he had contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs to talk about the exclusivity provision with the Singaporean administration because he believed it had hurt neighboring nations.
Rep. Joey Salceda, a congressman, said last week that he had brought up the matter after seeing how costly and difficult it would be for Filipinos, including those on his own staff, to attend the performances.
Referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, he said in an interview that “ASEAN’s core principles are solidarity and consensus.” “What took place? They also blocked other countries using its tourist board.”
When questioned on Tuesday about the grant’s value, the Singaporean government remained silent. Swift’s performances, for which more than 300,000 tickets had been sold, would probably “generate significant benefits” for the local economy, according to a joint statement from the Tourism Board and the Culture Ministry.
During an ASEAN meeting in Australia on Tuesday, Lee was questioned about the gift as well. He added that it was financed by a post-COVID tourist recovery initiative and had no opinion that the exclusivity condition was “unfriendly” to other nations.
“If we had not made such an arrangement, would she have come to someplace else in Southeast Asia or more places in Southeast Asia?” he remarked while addressing in Melbourne. “Maybe, maybe not.”
The Wall Street Journal, The Diplomat, and other news sources first reported on the pushback to the gift in the area.
Financial incentives aside, Harris Rimmer said that Singapore makes sense as a venue for Swift’s Southeast Asian tour, especially for her younger female fan base, given its strong transportation infrastructure to the rest of the region. According to her, Swift’s glitzy persona goes well with Singapore’s attempts to position itself as the “glamour kitten of Asia.”
“I don’t think she needs Singapore’s money at this point,” she said.
Some Swifties have come to terms with the singer’s constrained tour schedule in their area. Most of the time,

Writer Jose Bunachita, 30, of Cebu, Philippines, reported that he saw Swift in Japan last month; the cost of his 11-day journey there was estimated to be $1,500. “I had the time of my life singing my heart out,” he said.
He said, “I also feel like it would have been more of a fun experience if a majority of the concertgoers had been fellow Filipino Swifties.”