PM Lee: Taylor Swift deal to bring her to Singapore 'not unfriendly'

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#straitstimes #taylorswift #theerastour #singapore

[Halflifex]

When Thailand announced they wanted to build the transportation shortcut at their south, and they were claiming that it would destroy Singapore and Malaysia's economy.
That wasn't very neighbourly too.

[lamdao]

Seriously: TS is not doing the concert as a charity. The concert is a business. She is entitled to maximise her profits. By locating in Singapore, TS's team reduce cost of setting up and transporting stage equipment from one place to another. And there's enough demand in the concert in Singapore that the team extended it by 3 more days, at ZERO cost of transportation.

In addition, here are a few issues that TS' team would want to avoid:

Indonesia and Malaysia - Taylor Swift prancing around on stage wearing revealing clothing: - Islamic Mullahs in Indonesia and Malaysia would be the first to say it's inappropriate and call for boycotts and demonstrations.  

Philippines: - Terrible traffic jams. Security risks.  Heck, Chris Martin from Cold play wrote a song about it and President Marcos took a helicopter to the venue. I guarantee you that NO ONE IN SINGAPORE needed to take a helicopter to the Singapore venue.

Thailand: Thailand has experienced year of protests - yellow shirts vs red shirts. in 2023, there was the national elections. Why would Taylor's team want to take the risk of holding concerts in Thailand and may be having protests disrupt the concert?

Uncertainty is NOT good for business.

Also, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand - all very corrupt. Imagine how much TS's team would have to pay in bribes to make sure that all the equipment clears customs in a timely way. Notice that TS' team went to Australia, Japan and Singapore. All with pretty clean governments.

Corruption is a cancer on a nation. There's a huge cost and frankly, TS NOT wanting to deal with corruption in any of the other ASEAN countries, may well be the NUMBER 1 reason why TS team happily chose to stay in Singapore.

[alvinlim]

the building of the Kra canal is good neighbourliness?

[MalcolmAng]

If Singapore did not cut the deal to bring Taylor swift, then there are also no guarantees that other south east nations can do it.

[Jack-hyki]

Seriously no Singaporean noticed that TS concert was announced in May or June 2023 and started selling in July 2023. Why now then the Thai and Philippines make noise?They have no foresight at all. They only wanted TS to hold concert in their country after they saw the profit Japan and Australia got from TS concert.
Blaming SG Gov for their own incapability. Obviously SG Gov became a scapegoat for their incapability.

[rbc]

Thailand is building a land bridge with China. Should Singapore protest as this is "unfriendly"?

[impopquiz]

SG did their homework BEFORE any tour dates were announced. It’s called foresight.
TS also save on stage n staff logistics for the frequent flying too. Btw, she could also reject.
I don’t always agree with the govt but this case I find it’s fair game.

[CrosbyStill]

The difference as in any business is - one has a strategy and move fast while the other one was just waiting for the business to drop on his lap...which we all know is not going to happen. So you cant blame the other competitor for making things happened. Opportunities doesnt wait for those who waits...

[eamond]

The Point is Taylor accepted the Offer...

[dkj]

If their agencies approached the Philippines and offering them exclusive rights, do you think the Philippines would say "No because we are friendly neighbors and we need to share the shows with others" ?

[WENSIYU-pi]

The Thai PM should have congratulated SG for being able to host such a fantastic event, not to show how bitter he is for his incapability. Learning to be a first class world leader might be too difficult for him

[lilycool]

Being a Singaporean, I don't see why our government needs to explain or apologise looking after Singapore economy. Which good government will not. Countries that are angry n jealous blame yourself for your incompetence. Not Singapore. Grow up and stop bad mouthing Singapore. Singaporean are so sick of countries that are just so mean n jealous.

[sadsett]

To the Philippine lawmaker who is extremely salty about the deal. Look at your country first before coming at Singapore. Do you have the facilities or money to match up? Simple answer is no. There is a reason why Taylor chose Singapore over others, she is not dumb you know

[lenkiatleong]

Bringing tourists to one's country is always a competition. Clearly the Thai PM was a lousy loser making all those remarks about Swift's concert deals with SG. He should try harder to compete.

[jeneuweenlaf]

Swift must be so gratified that there's celebrities, dignitaries going to her concert and now countries are bickering over her.

[matreen]

it was a business deal, nothing unfriendly

[EileenTan-pg]

Don't blame people when u can't close a deal

[justingomez]

In any deal, there are risks. Speficaally monetary .
Gain or loss .Singapore took on that risk for Taylor to perform in Singapore. This risk is immensely being overwhelmed by Taylor fans' response to perform in Singapore.
Many considerations for Taylor and the team who decided and chose the venue to perform in Asia. Why are other countries bickering and spinning narratives ?

[spaideman]

singapore should let all its neighbour 'eat first' and then eat last(if any left) then this is considered as 'good neighbour'. for example thailand tried to lure all south east asia tourists into their country by allowing drug use, let them 'eat first'. unfortunately they vomit (u-turned on drug use) everything out.

[ngiakkeekoh]

We do not owe any other sour grapes countries any explanations. 👍👏👏👏Singapore 💪💪💪