Singapore will compensate the pop star for not performing concerts elsewhere in Southeast Asia.
A surprising dispute has arisen to be resolved at the ASEAN summit in Melbourne, Australia.
No. It is not about the Myanmar crisis or the tightening situation in the South China Sea Taylor Swift.
The American pop star is currently performing in Singapore, where he has six concerts of his Eras tour.
However, Singapore has made a special deal and will pay Swift not to appear in other Southeast Asian countries. At first, Singapore did not disclose this.
Prime Minister of Thailand By Srettha Thavis however, brought the condition included in the concert fee to the public and the Filipino MP says that “good neighbors don’t act like this”.
Therefore, the issue is now being discussed at the level of the head of state.
The journalists grilled the Prime Minister of Singapore at the press conference Lee Hsien Loongwho assured that owning Swift is not a hateful act.
– I don’t consider this an unfriendly act, Lee said.
Singapore has not disclosed how much it paid for the exclusive rights to Swift’s concerts.
Thai Prime Minister Thavisin has said that according to the concert promoter, it would be three million US dollars (2.77 million euros) per concert.
He has also said that he would have tried to make a similar deal if he had known about the possibility.
Last month, Indonesia’s tourism minister Sandiaga Uno already apologized for Swift not performing in the country.
– Singapore bought him. Let us learn from this, he said.
Swift’s concerts are a stimulus for the economy
Singapore’s neighboring countries are outraged by the city-state’s actions, especially because of money. The concert ban takes away the income that concerts bring with them.
The concerts in Singapore are estimated to attract 300,000 spectators.
Analyst at Maybank in Malaysia Chua Hak Bin estimates that seven out of ten viewers come from abroad. They spend 230–350 million euros on housing, food and entertainment in connection with the concerts.
Superstar concerts can swing the needle of the economy also negatively.
When another US superstar Beyonce performed in Sweden last summer, July’s higher-than-expected inflation was largely attributed to the fact that hotels, air tickets, food, drinks and entertainment services became more expensive during the concerts.
AFP, AP, Reuters