Taylor Swift officially declared a billionaire by Forbes
NEW YORK — Taylor Swift was officially named a member of the three-comma-club on Tuesday (April 2), as Forbes confirmed rumours estimating her wealth exceeds a billion dollars.
The financial news outlet said she is the first artist to achieve billionaire status solely on the basis of her music, and estimated she has a US$1.1 billion (S$1.5 billion) fortune.
Other industry heavyweights who've hit the mark — Rihanna and Jay-Z among them — have earned their massive wealth in part via fashion brands, alcohol companies or entertainment holdings, among other interests.
Along with her vast songwriting catalogue, Swift staged the first billion-dollar tour ever — the ongoing Eras Tour has boosted economies and delighted fans around the world.
Swift, 34, also has a significant real estate portfolio, with homes in New York, Beverly Hills, Nashville and a coastal mansion in Rhode Island.
Her touring milestone was one of many records Swift shattered over the past year, including winning a fourth Grammy for Best Album, the most of any artist.
She received wall-to-wall attention throughout 2023, which closed with Time Magazine honouring Swift as Person of the Year, calling her a "rare person who is both the writer and hero of her own story".
And in mere weeks fans have a brand-new album to look forward to: Swift is set to drop "The Tortured Poets Department" on April 19.
NEW RECORD
The frenzy around Swift was augmented last year by her dating life, as the pop culture icon began a very public romantic relationship with tight end Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs, who ultimately won the Super Bowl championship.
Chiefs games — where Swift has been a regular in a private box — smashed a series of ratings records this past season.
It was yet more evidence of her vast influence: with hundreds of millions of social media followers and a staunchly loyal fan base, she can move any dial with the tiniest of efforts.
Even politicos — and conspiracy theorists — for months have been opining on her potential impact on the upcoming presidential election.
Swift was born in Pennsylvania on December 13, 1989. She began writing songs professionally as a teenager, signing with Nashville's Big Machine Records as a country artist.
Years after she went full pop and, as she moved on to a major deal with Universal, Swift became embroiled in very publicized feud with Big Machine.
The sale of her song catalogUE to a private equity firm triggered a massive dispute over musicians' rights — and a bold new era of Swift's career.
She vowed to re-record her first six albums in order to own their rights, and began making good on the promise, urging her fans to listen to "Taylor's Version" instead of previous releases.
In the meantime, she's released several more original studio albums, with her 11th due later this month.
And her conversation-commanding Eras tour is due to continue until the end of 2024, with estimates anticipating she will surpass the US$2 billion threshold, a staggering sum.
Taylor Swift is in Singapore, and only in Singapore. The deal we made with the world’s biggest pop star means she won’t be performing in any other Southeast Asian country. Sucks to be a non-Singaporean Swiftie right now.
Naturally, our neighbours have complained. And Singapore hasn’t exactly taken too kindly to the complaints.
Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong revealed that the government is considering “appropriate measures” against those who leaked the details of the deal. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong acknowledged the successful exclusivity deal but denied that the arrangement is in any way “unfriendly” to its regional neighbours.
This exclusivity generated outcry on social media, notably from Swifties in other countries who lamented how unfair it was that Singapore basically tossed a lot of money to be the only country in Southeast Asia where Taylor Swift would perform. Filipino lawmaker Joey Salceda also criticised the exclusivity clause, saying that “it’s not what good neighbours do”. Singapore’s deal has also pushed Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to butt heads with his political opposition.
That hasn’t unfazed Singapore—not one bit. Former MFA Permanent Secretary Bilahari Kausikan called other countries “sour grapes” after they criticised the exclusivity clause. Quite the statement from a former top diplomat.
What was supposed to be a celebrated event has now caused a strain among neighbours. Who knew then that the singer-songwriter behind ‘You Belong With Me’ would be at the centre of a Southeast Asian geopolitical tiff?
We get it. Taylor Swift is god-tier popular—and for governments, that means tourism dollars. Taylor Swift’s Singapore shows are estimated to bring up to S$500M in tourism receipts as fans from Southeast Asia fly in to attend the concert. But all this goes to show just why our regional neighbours think of Singapore as that snotty rich kid who can do anything they want by waving money around.
The Singaporean Smugness
Tourism means an increase in exports and a healthier balance of trade. The same increase in exports for Singapore, however, also means an increase in imports for other countries. So what’s good for us actually isn’t so great for others.
This is where the exclusivity clause really stings. It means that it’s no longer a competition to attract more tourists with better venues, amenities, or other tourist attractions. It’s a game where the winner has already been decided. And the losers are just fighting to lose less.
The kicker is that the exclusivity clause was also tied to grants that Singapore gave Taylor Swift to perform in Singapore. Remember the guy who came to school showing off something that he bought and refusing to let anyone else even touch it? And remember how everyone felt envious and maybe a little salty too?
It’s probably the same feeling other countries are getting right now, except on a much larger scale. That’s why it’s such an issue for other SEA countries. Singapore won a bidding war, and it’s not going to share its winnings.
Of course, the government intended the deal to remain confidential. But when news of the exclusivity clause broke, so did Singaporean smugness on social media platforms.
This smugness which comes with bragging about seeing Taylor Swift here is like the smugness some would have when visiting Johor Bahru. If I had one ringgit for every time a Singaporean brought up the exchange rate when arguing with a Malaysian, I’d have at least a thousand Singapore dollars.
At its core, the Singaporean smugness is tied to spending power relative to our neighbours. It’s spending power which Singaporeans enjoy merely by the lottery of birth. And Taylor Swift was just another tool where Singaporeans could claim bragging rights.
Can You Really Blame Us?
But in many ways, Singapore’s success in getting Taylor Swift to agree to the exclusivity clause is nothing unusual. It was not achieved via coercion or corruption—it’s merely an expression of Singapore’s superior ability to attract such icons to the country.
The funds Singapore allocates to pay Taylor Swift for her performances don’t just materialise overnight; they’re the result of astute strategies that fostered economic development.
And if a country like Singapore without natural resources like tin, rubber, timber, and oil is able to accrue the funds for such an expense, then surely it is our right to use the money as we please. It is, after all, our money to use for our benefit.
In this sense, Singapore really does have nothing to apologise for. Mr Kausikan has also remarked in the past that diplomacy is not about being nice, polite, or agreeable, but about protecting and promoting a country’s interests.
Being nice is simply a bonus.
But on the flip side, it doesn’t hurt to get along with the neighbours. Flaunting one’s achievements is rarely the way to win friends. For all our posturing as a country that believes in creating prosperity for all, this deal certainly seems to go against that.
No one likes a showoff. But everyone loves the guy who shares what he has. In the classroom analogy, nobody picks on the guy who likes to bring Pocky for everyone to share.
It seems somewhat ridiculous that concerts could lead to a diplomatic spat. And certainly, the matter seems trivial when compared to the high politics of security and foreign policy.
To say that Singapore has offended its neighbours by negotiating a contract with Taylor Swift that includes an exclusivity clause wouldn’t be accurate—we’ve done nothing wrong.
POFMA is a weapon used only on Sinkies, PAP is dickless when it comes to foreign entities. Anyhow, 61% of us chose for everyone to be incessantly intimidated, therefore I don't want to hear any more complaints.
Debate heats up as Singapore prime minister says exclusive Taylor Swift deal isn’t ‘unfriendly’
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Tuesday that a closed-door deal for Taylor Swift to perform in the city-state ensured she would not perform in other Southeast Asian countries during her Eras tour.
″(Our) agencies negotiated an arrangement with her to come to Singapore and perform and to make Singapore her only stop in Southeast Asia,” he said at a press conference at a regional summit in Melbourne, according to Reuters.
The statement is the first confirmation from the city-state that the agreement for Swift to perform in Singapore contained exclusivity terms preventing her from performing in other countries.
On Monday, Edwin Tong, Singapore’s minister for culture, community and youth, declined to answer this question twice during a parliamentary session.
He also did not reveal the size of the grant to Swift, but stated the amount is “not anywhere as high as speculated.”
“Due to business confidentiality reasons, we cannot reveal the specific size of the grant or the conditions of the grant,” he said.
The issue gained prominence on Feb. 16 when Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin alleged Singapore gave Swift’s team between $2 million and $3 million per show, in exchange for not performing in other regional cities, according to The Bangkok Post.
A diplomatic thorn
The payment of a grant to Swift’s promoters has become a diplomatic thorn for Singapore, prompting criticism from neighboring countries for brokering a deal that shut them out from the highest-grossing tour of all time.
Member of the Philippine House of Representatives Joey Salceda said this “isn’t what good neighbors do” and added that such agreements are contrary to ASEAN principles, according to local media.
Lee on Tuesday disputed this characterization, saying, “It has turned out to be a very successful arrangement. I don’t see that as being unfriendly.”
During her first three concerts in Singapore, Swift asked her audience to applaud — first the locals, then those who had traveled from overseas to come to the show. In every instance, the applause of travelers was far louder.
Average daily rates at hotels in Singapore rose from $256 to $400 this week, with bookings up 92% from travelers coming from Malaysia, 111% from Thailand and 189% from Indonesia, according to the travel software company RateGain.
Swift’s tour prior to Eras, her Reputation Stadium Tour in 2018, included only one stop in Asia — Tokyo.
But her previous tours — Speak Now, Red and 1989 tours — included stops in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia.
Shrewd or selfish?
Singapore’s agreement has sparked a debate on whether this is just smart dealmaking or greed.
“It certainly was a bold, shrewd strategic move for Singapore,” said Selena Oh, a Singapore-based communications director.
But others say a winner-takes-all mentality harms regional tourism industries, which are still recovering from the pandemic, as well as fans who can’t afford the steep travel prices to see Swift in person.
“Slightly selfish with ONLY Singapore in mind and not the wider region. Clearly [Singapore authorities] aren’t very caring for anyone other [than] themselves,” said Christian de Boer, a Cambodia-based hotel managing director.
Some liken the deal to how cities vie to host major sports events, such as the Olympics, the Super Bowl and the World Cup.
“Did anyone protest when F1 decided to come to Singapore? Is anyone pretending that there were no monetary or other material considerations?” said Irene Hoe, a Singapore-based editorial consultant.
Concerts — which see artists traveling from city to city to reach their fans — haven’t always been this competitive.
But that may be changing as experience-led tourism pushes concerts into money-making juggernauts, with fans willing to travel across continents to see their favorite artists.
A ‘mean’ deal?
During Monday’s Parliamentary session, Singaporean politician Gerald Giam asked Tong whether the Singapore government negotiated to make the island Taylor 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 asked.
Tong replied, “You have to make your calculations and work out what’s in Singapore and Singaporeans′ best interest.”
When you are a 败家子 and 庸君 rolled into one, you will always be feeling ill at ease in the public eye, even more so when you know deep down you are peddling outright falsehoods or attempting to mislead folks.
Govt considering action against those who leaked confidential info on S’pore’s Taylor Swift deal: Edwin Tong
• A confidentiality clause was included in the contract for Taylor Swift's shows in Singapore, said Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong in Parliament on Monday (March 4)
• The Government is considering taking action against those who leaked information about the deal
• Mr Tong added that the Sports Hub aims to be “more than simply a venue for hire”
SINGAPORE — A confidentiality clause was included in the contract for Taylor Swift's shows in Singapore, and the Government is now mulling "appropriate measures" since some details of the deals were leaked, said Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong on Monday (March 4).
Mr Tong was responding to a question from Nominated Member of Parliament Usha Chandradas who asked whether there was a confidentiality clause in the American singer's contract with Singapore and, if so, whether the Government will take action against those who breached it.
She noted that the news of Swift striking a deal to make Singapore the only Southeast Asian stop on her Eras Tour has “struck a nerve” with some of the city-state’s neighbours.
Without mentioning any names, Mr Tong said the Government will assess the terms of the contract and will take “appropriate measures under advisement”.
Last month, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin was quoted as saying that Singapore had brokered a deal to pay the pop star up to US$3 million (S$4.04 million) for each of her six concerts — in exchange for keeping the shows exclusive to Singapore in Southeast Asia.
According to Mr Srettha, concert promoter Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) had informed him of the arrangement.
TODAY reached out to AEG on Feb 19 to ask if there was indeed an exclusive deal made with Swift and how much she was paid per show.
AEG did not respond to those queries.
On Feb 20, the authorities confirmed that they had given a grantto help bring the Swift concert to Singapore, though they stopped short of confirming if an exclusive deal was struck.
TODAY again reached out to AEG on Monday to also ask if it was the source of information for what Mr Srettha said on Swift's exclusive deal with Singapore.
Speaking in Parliament on Monday, Mr Tong also said that the goal of Kallang Alive Sport Management (KASM), which manages the Singapore Sports Hub, is to be “more than simply a venue for hire”.
“Our aim is to bring a whole spectrum of events to Kallang for Singaporeans — from top-tier marquee events to community-related ones; from music concerts to sporting as well as social events.”
He said that since the Government took over, the Sports Hub has seen a 30 per cent increase in sports, entertainment, and community and lifestyle event days from 2019.
Besides bringing in world-class acts such as Swift, Coldplay and Mayday Parade, Mr Tong said KASM has brought in marquee sporting events and has a team dedicated to organising more free community sporting events.
For example, Sports Hub hosted a record 43 National School Games finals in 2023, compared with 16 before the pandemic, he said.
"While we cover a range of top-tier events that are ticketed, there is also a range of non-ticketed and non-revenue generating events, such as the large-scale festivals during Chinese New Year, last year for Hari Raya and Deepavali," he said.
“This ensures that we have a strong social return by providing programmes for everyone to bond, interact and build affinity with the Sports Hub."
If anything, a seemingly shady deal just felt way shadier with MIW's latest unsavoury salvo. Go on AEG, dish out more dirt💩so we can have ourselves a jolly entertaining week🎉
Bad blood over Singapore Taylor Swift Eras tour subsidies
In the glitzy Asian city-state of Singapore, the sequins are out, limousines polished and hotel pillows plumped.
The city's hosting Taylor Swift's Eras tour this week - an honour, but one that has come at a cost.
That price was initially reported to be as high as S$24 million (£14m; $18m) for the six shows to be exclusive to the South East Asian country.
Culture minister Edwin Tong has since told Singapore's CNA the figure was "nowhere as high" - although he still refused to be drawn on the exact figure. The broadcaster, however, suggested it may have been just S$2m for all six.
But the fact any money had been spent only came to light after an outburst from the prime minister of Thailand, who accused Singapore of paying concert organisers US$2-3m per night.
That triggered criticism across the region. In the Philippines, a lawmaker criticised the move, saying "this isn't what good neighbours do" - and called for a formal protest against the grant.
But while governments are seeing red - it's the fans who are paying the price, literally.
Swift is heard everywhere across South East Asia, home to roughly 700 million people - from alleyways in Ho Chi Minh to taxi cabs in Bangkok.
So for many it was a punch in the guts to learn all six shows would be held in the region's most expensive city.
Singapore's currency - one of the strongest in Asia - has long been a deterrent for visitors. But for a chance to see their idol, many of her fans are willing to grin and bear it.
Look what you made me do
Flight-loads of fans have been touching down at Singapore's Changi Airport all week, many coming from China and its territories.
Swift isn't playing in China so Singapore is the next best thing for many.
One woman flying in from Shenzhen told the BBC she and her friend had spent S$1,200 each on tickets alone. They've resorted to camping at a friend's house after hotel rates across the city surged.
On the luxe end of things, the city's landmark hotel Marina Bay Sands has sold out of its S$50,000 Swift packages which included four VIP tickets and a three-night stay in a suite.
Then there's 22-year-old Allen Dungca in the Philippines, who scraped together his wages to take him and his mother to Singapore.
This Thursday, they'll take a four-hour bus ride to Manila, stay at an airport motel for the night, then grab their dawn flight the next day.
The enterprising student snapped up the travel package back in July. He eventually tracked down the tickets on a resale night, after weeks of desperate hunting.
"I am very lucky," he says of the S$400 outlay for seats in the nosebleed section. "The seller was kind and not a scalper."
Resales now are going for thousands. And he had almost fallen for a scam, a shady character named Pat Steve, later exposed online.
He estimates the whole endeavour is costing him S$2,000 - the monthly income of an upper-middle class family in the Philippines, a country where a fifth of the population lives under the poverty line.
"Right now, I'm a student with a part-time job and I can afford my wants and needs. But it's sad, other Swifties don't have any means or budget to watch her overseas and I know most Filipino Swifties love her so much."
The Philippines arguably has the most ardent Swift fan base - Spotify data showed Quezon City in Manila had played the most streams of the singer last year.
The pop star has toured in the Philippines before - but the bag of money from Singapore undoubtedly sweetened the deal, say analysts.
Clean, modern Singapore has long been seen as a base in the region for big events. It has the infrastructure, the transport links and a high-earning, expat-heavy population.
It's also seen as reliably stable in a region which has experienced political chaos. A decade ago Swift cancelled her shows in Thailand because of the military coup and resulting protests.
Still, while it's common for governments around the world to give out subsidies and tax breaks to bring in events, the reported spend goes beyond anything else publicly known in Singapore.
Samer Hajjar, a marketing lecturer at the National University of Singapore, says it's "above average" even for the city-state.
And fans are quite blunt. "It's kinda greedy," says Mr Dunga. "But it's wise… because their economic response will be way more than that."
But will it be though?
Show me the money
In Australia, the leg of the tour preceding Singapore, officials suggested the tour had provided a A$145m "uplift" in consumer spending. More than 570,000 tickets were sold across seven nights in Sydney and Melbourne, nearly double the number sold for Singapore's six shows.
But not all of that money counts, says economists.
More than 90% of show-goers were probably local, estimates KPMG's chief economist Dr Brendan Rynne, so their dollars would be "just a transfer from one category of spending (or saving) to another".
Only foreign visitors would have been adding to the books - and they accounted for just 2% of visitors, he estimated. After doing the maths he projected Swift had added only A$10m (£5.1m; $6.5m) to GDP.
Still, Australia didn't use public funds to have Swift play in the country, state government officials confirmed to the BBC. Neither did Japan, the only other Asian stop on the tour.
Singapore has said Swift's tour will bring certain economic benefits to the country.
But just how much net gain will be generated is unclear. The BBC has reached out to Singapore's tourism board but they have refused to reveal foreign visitor estimates or other modelling.
A local bank, Maybank, has suggested that consumer spending may top S$350m - but that's based on the very optimistic prediction of 70% of attendees being from out of town.
Even Singapore's Formula One Grand Prix only saw 49% of spectators from overseas in 2022, with a record 300,000 crowd.
When pressed on the numbers, Maybank's economist Erica Tay could not provide specifics, saying the 70% rate was based on Singapore's "potential catchment" and the bank was not interested in estimating net profit.
"Six concerts may not move a nation's economic growth materially, but the strategic value of Taylor Swift's endorsement of Singapore as a tourism destination outweighs that one-off boost," she said.
But business professor Julien Cayla from Singapore's Nanyang Technological University points out that public spend should be scrutinised - especially when it's only revealed to citizens by another country's government.
And in a country where welfare benefits are relatively limited - it could be seen as a fraught spend.
"To justify spending [reportedly] S$24 million on something that on the surface might not seem that critical to the economic health of the country over spending on people and public services… there's a tension there," Prof Cayla said.
Nonetheless he and others say that when it comes to planning tourism, governments have mandate to throw around money and Singapore isn't an exception.
"They don't necessarily like to advertise it. But the minute the government sees something that fits into a long-term strategy, it will sink government money in to support that," he says.
In a way, Singapore has just brought in Swift the same way it currently attracts huge multinational corporations.
"What's different here is that Taylor Swift as a business, is a very emotional business," he said.
"It's dealing with the emotions of 10-18 year olds, who are very sad to not see the concert happening in Bangkok or Jakarta."
And in the words of the songstress herself, that's caused a lot of bad blood.
Philippine lawmaker wants probe on Taylor Swift’s Singapore-only concert deal — ‘not what good neighbours do’
• Lawmaker Joey Salceda says Manila should not ‘just let things like this pass’ and that it should ‘register its opposition’ to Singapore
• Other regional politicians have also commented on the deal that supposedly states Singapore is the only Southeast Asian stop for Swift’s concerts
A Philippine lawmaker has called on his government to question Singapore over the city state’s decision to offer American pop star Taylor Swift a significant monetary grant, supposedly to prevent her from performing anywhere else in Southeast Asia.
Calling Singapore’s move “not what good neighbours do”, Joey Salceda, who serves on the Philippine House of Representatives, asked the country’s Department of Foreign Affairs to seek an explanation on the deal from the Singaporean embassy.
The deal is said to contain a condition that Singapore would be the only stop on the Southeast Asian leg of Swift’s hugely popular Eras Tour.
“Some [US$3 million] in grants were allegedly given by the Singapore government to [concert promoter AEG] to host the concert in Singapore,” Salceda said. “The catch was that they do not host it elsewhere in the region.”
Swift arrived in Singapore on Wednesday ahead of her six sold-out concerts at the 55,000-seat National Stadium, the first of which will start this Saturday. More than 300,000 Swift fans, popularly known as “Swifties”, are expected to attend the concerts.
News of her concerts in Singapore sparked a frenzy for tickets in the city state and across the region last year, with some queuing overnight for a chance to snag tickets.
Many Swift fans across Southeast Asia have expressed disappointment over Singapore being the only stop in the region for the 34-year-old superstar’s tour.
Salceda’s comments are the latest uproar over the alleged exclusivity term signed by Swift’s concert promoter and Singapore, which critics see as a snub to its regional neighbours.
Thailand Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin first made the claim earlier this month that Singapore paid Swift about US$2.8 million per show under the exclusivity deal.
Salceda said that while the policy worked to the benefit of Singapore, he took issue with how this was done “at the expense” of its neighbours.
“I give it to them that the policy worked,” he said. “But it was at the expense of neighbouring countries, which could not attract their foreign concertgoers, and whose fans had to go to Singapore.
“I don’t think we should just let things like this pass. We should still officially register our opposition. It also runs contrary to the principle of consensus-based relations and solidarity on which Asean was founded,” he added, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
On February 21, the Singapore Tourism Board and Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth said in a statement that Swift had received a grant but did not specify the amount or whether it was conditioned on exclusivity due to confidentiality agreements.
It would appear Capella is pulling way ahead of Raffles Hotel in the prestige game - first it hosted the Trump-Kim summit, now Taylor Swift. Time for ya to start adding lotsa oil, Raffles Hotel!
Taylor Swift officially declared a billionaire by Forbes
NEW YORK — Taylor Swift was officially named a member of the three-comma-club on Tuesday (April 2), as Forbes confirmed rumours estimating her wealth exceeds a billion dollars.
The financial news outlet said she is the first artist to achieve billionaire status solely on the basis of her music, and estimated she has a US$1.1 billion (S$1.5 billion) fortune.
Other industry heavyweights who've hit the mark — Rihanna and Jay-Z among them — have earned their massive wealth in part via fashion brands, alcohol companies or entertainment holdings, among other interests.
Along with her vast songwriting catalogue, Swift staged the first billion-dollar tour ever — the ongoing Eras Tour has boosted economies and delighted fans around the world.
Swift, 34, also has a significant real estate portfolio, with homes in New York, Beverly Hills, Nashville and a coastal mansion in Rhode Island.
Her touring milestone was one of many records Swift shattered over the past year, including winning a fourth Grammy for Best Album, the most of any artist.
She received wall-to-wall attention throughout 2023, which closed with Time Magazine honouring Swift as Person of the Year, calling her a "rare person who is both the writer and hero of her own story".
And in mere weeks fans have a brand-new album to look forward to: Swift is set to drop "The Tortured Poets Department" on April 19.
NEW RECORD
The frenzy around Swift was augmented last year by her dating life, as the pop culture icon began a very public romantic relationship with tight end Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs, who ultimately won the Super Bowl championship.
Chiefs games — where Swift has been a regular in a private box — smashed a series of ratings records this past season.
It was yet more evidence of her vast influence: with hundreds of millions of social media followers and a staunchly loyal fan base, she can move any dial with the tiniest of efforts.
Even politicos — and conspiracy theorists — for months have been opining on her potential impact on the upcoming presidential election.
Swift was born in Pennsylvania on December 13, 1989. She began writing songs professionally as a teenager, signing with Nashville's Big Machine Records as a country artist.
Years after she went full pop and, as she moved on to a major deal with Universal, Swift became embroiled in very publicized feud with Big Machine.
The sale of her song catalogUE to a private equity firm triggered a massive dispute over musicians' rights — and a bold new era of Swift's career.
She vowed to re-record her first six albums in order to own their rights, and began making good on the promise, urging her fans to listen to "Taylor's Version" instead of previous releases.
In the meantime, she's released several more original studio albums, with her 11th due later this month.
And her conversation-commanding Eras tour is due to continue until the end of 2024, with estimates anticipating she will surpass the US$2 billion threshold, a staggering sum.
https://www.todayonline.com/world/taylor-swift-officially-declared-billionaire-forbes-2396001
Dear Mr Edwin Tong, might you have wooed the wrong person to perform here?
Taylor Swift and the Singaporean Smugness
Taylor Swift is in Singapore, and only in Singapore. The deal we made with the world’s biggest pop star means she won’t be performing in any other Southeast Asian country. Sucks to be a non-Singaporean Swiftie right now.
Naturally, our neighbours have complained. And Singapore hasn’t exactly taken too kindly to the complaints.
Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong revealed that the government is considering “appropriate measures” against those who leaked the details of the deal. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong acknowledged the successful exclusivity deal but denied that the arrangement is in any way “unfriendly” to its regional neighbours.
This exclusivity generated outcry on social media, notably from Swifties in other countries who lamented how unfair it was that Singapore basically tossed a lot of money to be the only country in Southeast Asia where Taylor Swift would perform. Filipino lawmaker Joey Salceda also criticised the exclusivity clause, saying that “it’s not what good neighbours do”. Singapore’s deal has also pushed Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to butt heads with his political opposition.
That hasn’t unfazed Singapore—not one bit. Former MFA Permanent Secretary Bilahari Kausikan called other countries “sour grapes” after they criticised the exclusivity clause. Quite the statement from a former top diplomat.
What was supposed to be a celebrated event has now caused a strain among neighbours. Who knew then that the singer-songwriter behind ‘You Belong With Me’ would be at the centre of a Southeast Asian geopolitical tiff?
We get it. Taylor Swift is god-tier popular—and for governments, that means tourism dollars. Taylor Swift’s Singapore shows are estimated to bring up to S$500M in tourism receipts as fans from Southeast Asia fly in to attend the concert. But all this goes to show just why our regional neighbours think of Singapore as that snotty rich kid who can do anything they want by waving money around.
The Singaporean Smugness
Tourism means an increase in exports and a healthier balance of trade. The same increase in exports for Singapore, however, also means an increase in imports for other countries. So what’s good for us actually isn’t so great for others.
This is where the exclusivity clause really stings. It means that it’s no longer a competition to attract more tourists with better venues, amenities, or other tourist attractions. It’s a game where the winner has already been decided. And the losers are just fighting to lose less.
The kicker is that the exclusivity clause was also tied to grants that Singapore gave Taylor Swift to perform in Singapore. Remember the guy who came to school showing off something that he bought and refusing to let anyone else even touch it? And remember how everyone felt envious and maybe a little salty too?
It’s probably the same feeling other countries are getting right now, except on a much larger scale. That’s why it’s such an issue for other SEA countries. Singapore won a bidding war, and it’s not going to share its winnings.
Of course, the government intended the deal to remain confidential. But when news of the exclusivity clause broke, so did Singaporean smugness on social media platforms.
This smugness which comes with bragging about seeing Taylor Swift here is like the smugness some would have when visiting Johor Bahru. If I had one ringgit for every time a Singaporean brought up the exchange rate when arguing with a Malaysian, I’d have at least a thousand Singapore dollars.
At its core, the Singaporean smugness is tied to spending power relative to our neighbours. It’s spending power which Singaporeans enjoy merely by the lottery of birth. And Taylor Swift was just another tool where Singaporeans could claim bragging rights.
Can You Really Blame Us?
But in many ways, Singapore’s success in getting Taylor Swift to agree to the exclusivity clause is nothing unusual. It was not achieved via coercion or corruption—it’s merely an expression of Singapore’s superior ability to attract such icons to the country.
The funds Singapore allocates to pay Taylor Swift for her performances don’t just materialise overnight; they’re the result of astute strategies that fostered economic development.
And if a country like Singapore without natural resources like tin, rubber, timber, and oil is able to accrue the funds for such an expense, then surely it is our right to use the money as we please. It is, after all, our money to use for our benefit.
In this sense, Singapore really does have nothing to apologise for. Mr Kausikan has also remarked in the past that diplomacy is not about being nice, polite, or agreeable, but about protecting and promoting a country’s interests.
Being nice is simply a bonus.
But on the flip side, it doesn’t hurt to get along with the neighbours. Flaunting one’s achievements is rarely the way to win friends. For all our posturing as a country that believes in creating prosperity for all, this deal certainly seems to go against that.
No one likes a showoff. But everyone loves the guy who shares what he has. In the classroom analogy, nobody picks on the guy who likes to bring Pocky for everyone to share.
It seems somewhat ridiculous that concerts could lead to a diplomatic spat. And certainly, the matter seems trivial when compared to the high politics of security and foreign policy.
To say that Singapore has offended its neighbours by negotiating a contract with Taylor Swift that includes an exclusivity clause wouldn’t be accurate—we’ve done nothing wrong.
Just don’t rub it in other people’s faces.
http://www.ricemedia.co/taylor-swift-and-the-singaporean-smugness/
Debate heats up as Singapore prime minister says exclusive Taylor Swift deal isn’t ‘unfriendly’
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Tuesday that a closed-door deal for Taylor Swift to perform in the city-state ensured she would not perform in other Southeast Asian countries during her Eras tour.
″(Our) agencies negotiated an arrangement with her to come to Singapore and perform and to make Singapore her only stop in Southeast Asia,” he said at a press conference at a regional summit in Melbourne, according to Reuters.
The statement is the first confirmation from the city-state that the agreement for Swift to perform in Singapore contained exclusivity terms preventing her from performing in other countries.
On Monday, Edwin Tong, Singapore’s minister for culture, community and youth, declined to answer this question twice during a parliamentary session.
He also did not reveal the size of the grant to Swift, but stated the amount is “not anywhere as high as speculated.”
“Due to business confidentiality reasons, we cannot reveal the specific size of the grant or the conditions of the grant,” he said.
The issue gained prominence on Feb. 16 when Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin alleged Singapore gave Swift’s team between $2 million and $3 million per show, in exchange for not performing in other regional cities, according to The Bangkok Post.
A diplomatic thorn
The payment of a grant to Swift’s promoters has become a diplomatic thorn for Singapore, prompting criticism from neighboring countries for brokering a deal that shut them out from the highest-grossing tour of all time.
Member of the Philippine House of Representatives Joey Salceda said this “isn’t what good neighbors do” and added that such agreements are contrary to ASEAN principles, according to local media.
Lee on Tuesday disputed this characterization, saying, “It has turned out to be a very successful arrangement. I don’t see that as being unfriendly.”
Swift’s six concerts in Singapore are expected to pump between $260 million and $372 million into the island’s economy, assuming 70% of concertgoers come from overseas.
During her first three concerts in Singapore, Swift asked her audience to applaud — first the locals, then those who had traveled from overseas to come to the show. In every instance, the applause of travelers was far louder.
Average daily rates at hotels in Singapore rose from $256 to $400 this week, with bookings up 92% from travelers coming from Malaysia, 111% from Thailand and 189% from Indonesia, according to the travel software company RateGain.
Swift’s tour prior to Eras, her Reputation Stadium Tour in 2018, included only one stop in Asia — Tokyo.
But her previous tours — Speak Now, Red and 1989 tours — included stops in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia.
Shrewd or selfish?
Singapore’s agreement has sparked a debate on whether this is just smart dealmaking or greed.
“It certainly was a bold, shrewd strategic move for Singapore,” said Selena Oh, a Singapore-based communications director.
But others say a winner-takes-all mentality harms regional tourism industries, which are still recovering from the pandemic, as well as fans who can’t afford the steep travel prices to see Swift in person.
“Slightly selfish with ONLY Singapore in mind and not the wider region. Clearly [Singapore authorities] aren’t very caring for anyone other [than] themselves,” said Christian de Boer, a Cambodia-based hotel managing director.
Some liken the deal to how cities vie to host major sports events, such as the Olympics, the Super Bowl and the World Cup.
“Did anyone protest when F1 decided to come to Singapore? Is anyone pretending that there were no monetary or other material considerations?” said Irene Hoe, a Singapore-based editorial consultant.
Concerts — which see artists traveling from city to city to reach their fans — haven’t always been this competitive.
But that may be changing as experience-led tourism pushes concerts into money-making juggernauts, with fans willing to travel across continents to see their favorite artists.
A ‘mean’ deal?
During Monday’s Parliamentary session, Singaporean politician Gerald Giam asked Tong whether the Singapore government negotiated to make the island Taylor 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 asked.
Tong replied, “You have to make your calculations and work out what’s in Singapore and Singaporeans′ best interest.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/05/debate-heats-up-as-singapore-pm-says-taylor-swift-deal-isnt-unfriendly.html
Govt considering action against those who leaked confidential info on S’pore’s Taylor Swift deal: Edwin Tong
• A confidentiality clause was included in the contract for Taylor Swift's shows in Singapore, said Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong in Parliament on Monday (March 4)
• The Government is considering taking action against those who leaked information about the deal
• Mr Tong added that the Sports Hub aims to be “more than simply a venue for hire”
SINGAPORE — A confidentiality clause was included in the contract for Taylor Swift's shows in Singapore, and the Government is now mulling "appropriate measures" since some details of the deals were leaked, said Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong on Monday (March 4).
Mr Tong was responding to a question from Nominated Member of Parliament Usha Chandradas who asked whether there was a confidentiality clause in the American singer's contract with Singapore and, if so, whether the Government will take action against those who breached it.
She noted that the news of Swift striking a deal to make Singapore the only Southeast Asian stop on her Eras Tour has “struck a nerve” with some of the city-state’s neighbours.
Without mentioning any names, Mr Tong said the Government will assess the terms of the contract and will take “appropriate measures under advisement”.
Last month, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin was quoted as saying that Singapore had brokered a deal to pay the pop star up to US$3 million (S$4.04 million) for each of her six concerts — in exchange for keeping the shows exclusive to Singapore in Southeast Asia.
According to Mr Srettha, concert promoter Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) had informed him of the arrangement.
TODAY reached out to AEG on Feb 19 to ask if there was indeed an exclusive deal made with Swift and how much she was paid per show.
AEG did not respond to those queries.
On Feb 20, the authorities confirmed that they had given a grant to help bring the Swift concert to Singapore, though they stopped short of confirming if an exclusive deal was struck.
It was later reported by CNA that the figure is closer to US$2 million to US$3 million in total for all six shows.
TODAY again reached out to AEG on Monday to also ask if it was the source of information for what Mr Srettha said on Swift's exclusive deal with Singapore.
Speaking in Parliament on Monday, Mr Tong also said that the goal of Kallang Alive Sport Management (KASM), which manages the Singapore Sports Hub, is to be “more than simply a venue for hire”.
“Our aim is to bring a whole spectrum of events to Kallang for Singaporeans — from top-tier marquee events to community-related ones; from music concerts to sporting as well as social events.”
He said that since the Government took over, the Sports Hub has seen a 30 per cent increase in sports, entertainment, and community and lifestyle event days from 2019.
Besides bringing in world-class acts such as Swift, Coldplay and Mayday Parade, Mr Tong said KASM has brought in marquee sporting events and has a team dedicated to organising more free community sporting events.
For example, Sports Hub hosted a record 43 National School Games finals in 2023, compared with 16 before the pandemic, he said.
"While we cover a range of top-tier events that are ticketed, there is also a range of non-ticketed and non-revenue generating events, such as the large-scale festivals during Chinese New Year, last year for Hari Raya and Deepavali," he said.
“This ensures that we have a strong social return by providing programmes for everyone to bond, interact and build affinity with the Sports Hub."
https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/govt-action-taylor-swift-leak-deal-2374941
Bad blood over Singapore Taylor Swift Eras tour subsidies
In the glitzy Asian city-state of Singapore, the sequins are out, limousines polished and hotel pillows plumped.
The city's hosting Taylor Swift's Eras tour this week - an honour, but one that has come at a cost.
That price was initially reported to be as high as S$24 million (£14m; $18m) for the six shows to be exclusive to the South East Asian country.
Culture minister Edwin Tong has since told Singapore's CNA the figure was "nowhere as high" - although he still refused to be drawn on the exact figure. The broadcaster, however, suggested it may have been just S$2m for all six.
But the fact any money had been spent only came to light after an outburst from the prime minister of Thailand, who accused Singapore of paying concert organisers US$2-3m per night.
That triggered criticism across the region. In the Philippines, a lawmaker criticised the move, saying "this isn't what good neighbours do" - and called for a formal protest against the grant.
But while governments are seeing red - it's the fans who are paying the price, literally.
Swift is heard everywhere across South East Asia, home to roughly 700 million people - from alleyways in Ho Chi Minh to taxi cabs in Bangkok.
So for many it was a punch in the guts to learn all six shows would be held in the region's most expensive city.
Singapore's currency - one of the strongest in Asia - has long been a deterrent for visitors. But for a chance to see their idol, many of her fans are willing to grin and bear it.
Look what you made me do
Flight-loads of fans have been touching down at Singapore's Changi Airport all week, many coming from China and its territories.
Swift isn't playing in China so Singapore is the next best thing for many.
One woman flying in from Shenzhen told the BBC she and her friend had spent S$1,200 each on tickets alone. They've resorted to camping at a friend's house after hotel rates across the city surged.
On the luxe end of things, the city's landmark hotel Marina Bay Sands has sold out of its S$50,000 Swift packages which included four VIP tickets and a three-night stay in a suite.
Then there's 22-year-old Allen Dungca in the Philippines, who scraped together his wages to take him and his mother to Singapore.
This Thursday, they'll take a four-hour bus ride to Manila, stay at an airport motel for the night, then grab their dawn flight the next day.
The enterprising student snapped up the travel package back in July. He eventually tracked down the tickets on a resale night, after weeks of desperate hunting.
"I am very lucky," he says of the S$400 outlay for seats in the nosebleed section. "The seller was kind and not a scalper."
Resales now are going for thousands. And he had almost fallen for a scam, a shady character named Pat Steve, later exposed online.
He estimates the whole endeavour is costing him S$2,000 - the monthly income of an upper-middle class family in the Philippines, a country where a fifth of the population lives under the poverty line.
"Right now, I'm a student with a part-time job and I can afford my wants and needs. But it's sad, other Swifties don't have any means or budget to watch her overseas and I know most Filipino Swifties love her so much."
The Philippines arguably has the most ardent Swift fan base - Spotify data showed Quezon City in Manila had played the most streams of the singer last year.
The pop star has toured in the Philippines before - but the bag of money from Singapore undoubtedly sweetened the deal, say analysts.
Clean, modern Singapore has long been seen as a base in the region for big events. It has the infrastructure, the transport links and a high-earning, expat-heavy population.
It's also seen as reliably stable in a region which has experienced political chaos. A decade ago Swift cancelled her shows in Thailand because of the military coup and resulting protests.
Still, while it's common for governments around the world to give out subsidies and tax breaks to bring in events, the reported spend goes beyond anything else publicly known in Singapore.
Samer Hajjar, a marketing lecturer at the National University of Singapore, says it's "above average" even for the city-state.
And fans are quite blunt. "It's kinda greedy," says Mr Dunga. "But it's wise… because their economic response will be way more than that."
But will it be though?
Show me the money
In Australia, the leg of the tour preceding Singapore, officials suggested the tour had provided a A$145m "uplift" in consumer spending. More than 570,000 tickets were sold across seven nights in Sydney and Melbourne, nearly double the number sold for Singapore's six shows.
But not all of that money counts, says economists.
More than 90% of show-goers were probably local, estimates KPMG's chief economist Dr Brendan Rynne, so their dollars would be "just a transfer from one category of spending (or saving) to another".
Only foreign visitors would have been adding to the books - and they accounted for just 2% of visitors, he estimated. After doing the maths he projected Swift had added only A$10m (£5.1m; $6.5m) to GDP.
Still, Australia didn't use public funds to have Swift play in the country, state government officials confirmed to the BBC. Neither did Japan, the only other Asian stop on the tour.
Singapore has said Swift's tour will bring certain economic benefits to the country.
But just how much net gain will be generated is unclear. The BBC has reached out to Singapore's tourism board but they have refused to reveal foreign visitor estimates or other modelling.
A local bank, Maybank, has suggested that consumer spending may top S$350m - but that's based on the very optimistic prediction of 70% of attendees being from out of town.
Even Singapore's Formula One Grand Prix only saw 49% of spectators from overseas in 2022, with a record 300,000 crowd.
When pressed on the numbers, Maybank's economist Erica Tay could not provide specifics, saying the 70% rate was based on Singapore's "potential catchment" and the bank was not interested in estimating net profit.
"Six concerts may not move a nation's economic growth materially, but the strategic value of Taylor Swift's endorsement of Singapore as a tourism destination outweighs that one-off boost," she said.
But business professor Julien Cayla from Singapore's Nanyang Technological University points out that public spend should be scrutinised - especially when it's only revealed to citizens by another country's government.
And in a country where welfare benefits are relatively limited - it could be seen as a fraught spend.
"To justify spending [reportedly] S$24 million on something that on the surface might not seem that critical to the economic health of the country over spending on people and public services… there's a tension there," Prof Cayla said.
Nonetheless he and others say that when it comes to planning tourism, governments have mandate to throw around money and Singapore isn't an exception.
"They don't necessarily like to advertise it. But the minute the government sees something that fits into a long-term strategy, it will sink government money in to support that," he says.
In a way, Singapore has just brought in Swift the same way it currently attracts huge multinational corporations.
"What's different here is that Taylor Swift as a business, is a very emotional business," he said.
"It's dealing with the emotions of 10-18 year olds, who are very sad to not see the concert happening in Bangkok or Jakarta."
And in the words of the songstress herself, that's caused a lot of bad blood.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-68379688
Taylor Swift 姐姐逛乌节路可以吗?
Philippine lawmaker wants probe on Taylor Swift’s Singapore-only concert deal — ‘not what good neighbours do’
• Lawmaker Joey Salceda says Manila should not ‘just let things like this pass’ and that it should ‘register its opposition’ to Singapore
• Other regional politicians have also commented on the deal that supposedly states Singapore is the only Southeast Asian stop for Swift’s concerts
A Philippine lawmaker has called on his government to question Singapore over the city state’s decision to offer American pop star Taylor Swift a significant monetary grant, supposedly to prevent her from performing anywhere else in Southeast Asia.
Calling Singapore’s move “not what good neighbours do”, Joey Salceda, who serves on the Philippine House of Representatives, asked the country’s Department of Foreign Affairs to seek an explanation on the deal from the Singaporean embassy.
The deal is said to contain a condition that Singapore would be the only stop on the Southeast Asian leg of Swift’s hugely popular Eras Tour.
“Some [US$3 million] in grants were allegedly given by the Singapore government to [concert promoter AEG] to host the concert in Singapore,” Salceda said. “The catch was that they do not host it elsewhere in the region.”
Swift arrived in Singapore on Wednesday ahead of her six sold-out concerts at the 55,000-seat National Stadium, the first of which will start this Saturday. More than 300,000 Swift fans, popularly known as “Swifties”, are expected to attend the concerts.
News of her concerts in Singapore sparked a frenzy for tickets in the city state and across the region last year, with some queuing overnight for a chance to snag tickets.
Many Swift fans across Southeast Asia have expressed disappointment over Singapore being the only stop in the region for the 34-year-old superstar’s tour.
Salceda’s comments are the latest uproar over the alleged exclusivity term signed by Swift’s concert promoter and Singapore, which critics see as a snub to its regional neighbours.
Thailand Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin first made the claim earlier this month that Singapore paid Swift about US$2.8 million per show under the exclusivity deal.
Salceda said that while the policy worked to the benefit of Singapore, he took issue with how this was done “at the expense” of its neighbours.
“I give it to them that the policy worked,” he said. “But it was at the expense of neighbouring countries, which could not attract their foreign concertgoers, and whose fans had to go to Singapore.
“I don’t think we should just let things like this pass. We should still officially register our opposition. It also runs contrary to the principle of consensus-based relations and solidarity on which Asean was founded,” he added, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
On February 21, the Singapore Tourism Board and Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth said in a statement that Swift had received a grant but did not specify the amount or whether it was conditioned on exclusivity due to confidentiality agreements.
More at https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3253563/philippine-lawmaker-wants-probe-taylor-swifts-singapore-only-concert-deal-not-what-good-neighbours
Two Words: Sibei Lame
Rumour has it that Miss Swift ain't really a she, but a shim. ;)
I'd rather have the real Taylor Swift giving me a lap dance in only her panties :)
All 'em Swiftie dykes would most probably lap up this piece of"merchandise" in a heartbeat.
Err.......