OK lah, Singapore! Champagne Problems?

By Charles Lim

Megastar. Mega Bucks. Mega City.

The bruhaha that Singapore wasn’t too neighborly when she tailor-made an exclusive deal with Taylor Swift to make the Red Dot as the only country in Southeast Asia in her just concluded Asia/Pacific tour, is totally rubbish.

Thailand was first to comment on the deal when it’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin  (obviously a Swiftie himself) enquired why no Thai concert promoter wanted to bring the US megastar to his Kingdom. It was then revealed that Singapore had sealed an exclusive agreement to make it the only Southeast Asian concert stop.

Picking up on this, Congressman Joey Salcedo of the Philippines remarked that Singapore wasn’t acting like a friendly neighbor. Similar, but less assertive murmurs, could also be heard from Indonesia and Malaysia.

In the end, Singapore’s Premier, Lee Hsien Loong had to explain, with no apologies, that it was a business decision and any country would have done the same. Right on!

Yes, we would have done it too. What’s $3 million? From my marketing standpoint, Singapore, perhaps through their highly efficient Tourism Board and various other agencies, were way ahead in their planning before the organizers inked the contract.  For the island state, with just a population of five million, to book the Eras Tour for not two or three shows, but six is a mind boggle!  The Sports Hub, Singapore National Stadium which witnessed a record 55,000 Swifties each night for 6 shows, was a honey-sweet, bee hive,

Swiftieconomics reveal around 330,000 would have watched the show live. One source revealed about 70% of the audience came to Singapore from all over Asia, Staggering numbers but with all probability, true. Royalties, movie stars, entertainers by the thousands, influencers, rich students, poor and rich politicians, all certified Swifties from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Brunei, Vietnam, China, Korea, Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, Cambodia,  Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain etc., made a bee line – Destination: Singapore.  From Manila to Singapore, Cebu Pacific even changed their flight number to 5J1989 in reference to one of Taylor’s top LPs – 1989.

Since we are at numbers, it would not be wrong to guess at least $400 million flowed into Singapore in just a week.  The real figure may never be told but looking at those grins on the faces of my friends at the Singapore Tourism Board and the Singapore Sports Hub, the whole experience had gone beyond their “Wildest Dream.”