Taylor Swift (REUTERS)
SYDNEY — Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Tuesday an incentive provided to Taylor Swift to make Singapore the only stop in Southeast Asia on her world tour was not a hostile act toward its neighbors.
“(Our) agencies negotiated an arrangement with her to come to Singapore and perform and to make Singapore her only stop in Southeast Asia,” Lee told a press conference in Melbourne, where he is attending a regional summit.
“It has turned out to be a very successful arrangement. I don’t see that as being unfriendly.”
Swift is currently part way through six sold-out shows in Singapore, her only stop in Southeast Asia.
Singapore’s government previously said it had given Swift a grant to play in the city-state without mentioning the terms of the deal.
READ: Singapore chided for using ‘law of the jungle’ to bag Taylor Swift concert
The announcement annoyed other countries in the region, with the Thai prime minister saying the grant was made on condition that it would be Swift’s only show in Southeast Asia, while a Filipino lawmaker—Albay Rep. Joey Salceda—said it “isn’t what good neighbors do.”
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.
‘Law of the jungle’
Salceda on Tuesday said Lee’s statement was official admission that the city-state made a deal that essentially “lock[ed] other Asean neighbors out of the tour,” referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a 10-member regional bloc that counts the Philippines and Singapore as members.
“No doubt that it was very successful for Singapore,” Salceda said in a message to the Inquirer. “Judging by the Singaporean prime minister’s words, the weak must do what it can but the strong can do what it wants.”
Lee Hsien Loong (REUTERS)
“That’s the law of the jungle. That’s not the law of a neighborhood of countries bound by supposed principles of solidarity and consensus,” Salceda said.
Last week, the lawmaker, who also chairs the House committee on ways and means, asked the Department of Foreign Affairs to send a note verbale to the Singaporean Embassy in Manila to seek an explanation on the deal’s terms of exclusivity.
Salceda then estimated that if the Swift tour also included the Philippines, about a third of the tourists that Singapore had attracted would have pumped P1.44 billion into the Philippine economy, mainly in tourism, food, hospitality, and air transportation.