Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said an incentive provided to Taylor Swift to make Singapore the only stop in South-East Asia on her world tour was not a hostile act towards his country’s neighbours.
“[Our] agencies negotiated an arrangement with her to come to Singapore and perform and to make Singapore her only stop in South-East Asia,” Mr Lee told a press conference in Melbourne on Tuesday, where he is attending the ASEAN summit.
The prime minister did not reveal the cost of the exclusive deal, which was paid for from a government fund established to rebuild tourism after COVID-19 disruptions.
He also did not directly answer when asked if he had encountered “bad blood” among other leaders due to the deal, instead suggesting that if Singapore hadn’t struck an exclusive deal, a neighbouring country might have done so.
“It has turned out to be a very successful arrangement. I don’t see that as being unfriendly,” Mr Lee said.
He defended the deal at a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, a self-professed Swiftie.
An estimated 600,000 people saw Swift perform live in Australia during seven shows across Melbourne and Sydney in February.
Mr Lee said that while he didn’t know what Australia’s arrangements were, he expected it similarly made “mutually acceptable, sensible arrangements” with Swift when she performed in Melbourne and Sydney — one of which Mr Albanese attended — before flying to Singapore.
Swift is currently part-way through six sold-out shows in Singapore. Her representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Singapore’s government previously said it had given Swift a grant to play in the city-state, without mentioning the terms of the deal.
The announcement annoyed other countries in the region, with Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin saying the grant was made on condition that it would be Swift’s only show in South-East Asia, while a Filipino politician said it “isn’t what good neighbours do”.
Mr Srettha said that if he had known about the deal before, he was confident he would be able to pull off something similar.
Last month, Singapore’s tourism board and culture ministry referred to the economic benefits brought by Swift’s concerts around the world due to her popularity, and said the ministry had worked with concert promoter AEG Presents to get Swift to perform in Singapore.
Her Eras Tour shattered records when it reportedly surpassed $US1 billion ($1.5 billion) last year, and her film adaptation of the tour quickly took No.1 at the box office and became the highest-grossing concert film to date.
Reuters/AP