Entertainment

Singapore plays down payment to Taylor Swift amid grumbles from neighbours

City-state’s culture minister says grant given to pop icon ‘not anywhere as high as speculated’.

Singapore has downplayed the size of a grant it paid Taylor Swift after the city-state’s efforts to lure the pop icon led to complaints from regional neighbours.

Singapore’s Culture Minister Edwin Tong said on Monday that speculation about the size of the grant was “not accurate”.

“I can say that it is not accurate and not anywhere as high as speculated, but due to business confidentiality, we cannot reveal the specific size and conditions of the grant,” Tong told Parliament in response to questions from lawmakers.

Tong said the government was also confident that the economic benefits of Swift’s six concert dates in the city would be “significant and outweigh the size of the grant”.

Tong’s remarks come after Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin last month told a business forum that Singapore had paid Swift between $2m and $3m on the condition she not perform in any other country in Southeast Asia.

“If I had known this, I would have brought the shows to Thailand,” Srettha was quoted as saying in the Bangkok Post. “Concerts can generate added value for the economy.”

Philippine legislator Joey Salceda last week called on Manila to grill Singapore about the reported grant, saying such behaviour is “not what good neighbours do”.

Singapore officials had previously acknowledged offering Swift a grant to come to the city-state, without disclosing its terms, due to the benefits she would have on tourism-related sectors such as accommodation, retail and dining.

Singapore’s Channel News Asia has reported that hotels and airlines saw demand for flights and accommodation around the dates of the concerts jump by up to 30 percent.

Apart from four shows in Japan last month, Swift’s concerts in Singapore are the only stops she is making in Asia as part of her The Eras Tour.

The sold-out shows, which run until March 9, are being attended by some 300,000 fans, including those from neighbouring countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

Swift, one of the most successful music artists of all time with 14 Grammy wins and hundreds of millions of album sales worldwide, performed the first of her Singapore concerts on Saturday, after wrapping up the Australian leg of her tour last week with a show in front of 81,000 fans at Sydney’s Accor Stadium.

Related Posts

‘Goonies’ Sequel ‘Curse of One-Eyed Willy’ Is Releasing in Theaters in Summer 2026?

The 1985 classic film “The Goonies” was a hot topic of discussion on social media in early 2024, with users sharing news of a sequel title and poster….

QG Part 1 – (Hindi) Official Trailer | Vivek Kumar Kannan | Sunny Leone | Jackie Shroff | Priyamani

QG Part 1 – (Hindi) Official Trailer | Vivek Kumar Kannan | Sunny Leone | Jackie Shroff | Priyamani The plot centers around a mysterious protagonist who embarks…

Aranmanai 5 – Official Trailer | Sundar.C | Vijay sethupathi | Yogi babu | Hiphop Tamizha

“Aranmanai 5” is a cinematic masterpiece that opens up a world of mystery and suspense with its distinctive blend of supernatural and eerie elements. The story unfolds in…

CHUCKY vs M3GAN: Blumhouse Teases Epic Showdown in 2024

Blumhouse Productions has just released the highly anticipated teaser trailer for their upcoming 2024 horror crossover, CHUCKY vs M3GAN. The film brings together two of the most iconic…

The Boy 3: The Curse Continues – Official Trailer Released

The chilling new installment of The Boy franchise, titled The Boy 3: The Curse Continues, has finally unveiled its official trailer for 2024, and it promises to bring…

WINTER CHAINSAW MASSACRE | Teaser Trailer 2025 | Netflix

𝑁𝑒𝑡𝑓𝑙𝑖𝑥 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑊𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑎𝑤 𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑒 (2025), 𝑎 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑠ℎ 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑐𝑦 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝐿𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟-𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑠𝑒𝑡𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *