Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Tuesday, Mar. 5, that an incentive provided to American music superstar Taylor Swift to make Singapore the only Southeast Asian stop of her Eras Tour was not a sign of bad blood towards its ASEAN neighbors, particularly those that have a sizeable population of the star's fans, commonly referred to as Swifites.
"(Our) agencies negotiated an arrangement with her to come to Singapore and perform and to make Singapore her only stop in Southeast Asia," he told reporters at a joint press conference with Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese in Melbourne on the sidelines of the ASEAN-Australia Summit held in the city. "It has turned out to be a very successful arrangement. I don't see that as being unfriendly."
Lee added that it was not clear that Swift would have performed in other cities within the region if such an arrangement had not been made.
Swift is currently in the city-state for a six-night show as her sole ASEAN leg of the Eras Tour.
Lee, on the other hand, visited Melbourne, along with his Southeast Asian counterparts, to tackle more pressing issues that affect ASEAN as a whole, such as Myanmar's humanitarian crisis and the bloc's response to China's aggression in the South China Sea.
The bloc decided to hold the summit in Melbourne to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Australia becoming ASEAN's first external partner.
Thai, Filipino Officials See 'Bad Blood'
Reuters reported that the Singaporean government - currently ruled by the People's Action Party ever since its independence in 1965 - previously revealed that it had given Swift a grant to have a show in the island-nation, but did not mention any of the terms of the deal.
Aside from Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines have a sizable number of Swifties in their respective populations, with officials from both countries criticizing the Singaporean government's bid to sideline its ASEAN neighbors.
Thai Prime Minister Sretta Thavisin was quoted by Sky News last month saying that Singapore brokered a deal to pay Swift up to $3 million for each of her six concerts - or up to $18 million in total - in exchange for keeping the shows exclusive to Singapore and not spread out to Bangkok or even Manila.
Meanwhile, Philippine lawmaker Rep. Joey Salceda called on the country's Department of Foreign Affairs to protest against the grant, adding that what Singapore did was not "what good neighbors do."
"Our countries are good friends," he said. "That's why actions like that hurt."
The Filipino legislator added that, while Swift's Singapore stop would benefit the city-state, it was done so "at the expense of neighboring countries, which could not attract their own foreign concertgoers and whose fans had to go to Singapore," the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported.
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Singaporean MP: Was SG 'Mean' to Other ASEAN Countries?
Salceda's sentiment was shared by Cambodia-based hotel managing director Christian de Boer, who told CNBC that the winner-takes-all mentality Singapore had harms regional tourism industries, which were still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as fans who could not afford the expensive price tag of traveling to Singapore just to see Swift in person.
"Slightly selfish with ONLY Singapore in mind and not the wider region," he said. "Clearly [Singaporean authorities] aren't very caring for anyone other [than] themselves"
Singaporean cultural minister Edwin Tong previously told state-owned news agency Mediacorp that the country paid Swift around $2 million to $3 million for all of her six shows, which was "nowhere as high" as previous reports have suggested or Sretta's estimates.
In late February, the Singapore Tourism Board said it "supported the event through a grant" but did not reveal the grant's size or any of the attached conditions.
"What I'll say is this: The numbers that you see online - it is nowhere as high as what is being speculated," Tong said.
During a parliamentary session on Monday (Mar. 4), Singaporean MP Gerald Giam asked Tong whether the government negotiated to make the island Swift's only "blank space" in Southeast Asia, referencing her smash hit of the same name.
"And did it realize that this may be perceived by some of our neighbors as being mean?" he added, with a reference to another of Swift's songs.
"You have to make your calculations and work out what's in Singapore and Singaporeans′ best interest," Tong replied.
