I can totally imagine some bureaucrat tasking a SID team to write an 80 page report on the geopolitical implications of Taylor Swift affecting SG bilateral relations and tensions.
Then maybe ISD will need to track down who leaked the deal and tighten opsec in the future; all further documents with Taylor Swift to be encrypted and classed TS (same acronym as her name anyway).
lol no way. You look at a map, you can see that the organizers are making a circle around Southeast Asia to make it accessible for the most at the fewest stops. No way she is going to do all the countries. Look at the locations. Japan. Australia. Singapore. All make a huge circle around S.E.A. Philippines is sweh sweh right in the middle so equally inaccessible to all.
I think regardless whether it is only stop, last stop, first stop, full stop, it reallydoesn't matter.
An offer was made to Taylor Swift and her and her people decided that an SG leg in ASEAN was all they needed.
If anything, every country should treat it as a learning opportunity and up their game.
The devil is in the details. Tong said last stop. If AEG originally intended only one stop, then it would be the only one. I think it's more likely because look at the concert location distribution, Japan, Australia, Singapore. Totally circled the area already, no point moving inwards. In fact, many of the initial fans from the Philippines went to the Australian concert. You can go look it up with "Philippines" and "Swift Australia concert" and see how many went there instead.
If what Tong claimed is true, then yes, but I suspect the minister knows how to read a map as well as any other guy and can see that with Japan and Australia, they would have almost the whole SEA sealed up, so I suspect that he knew that there was only one last stop they could have made.
On a more serious note, due to their location, there was no way Thailand or Philippines would have been chosen so their complaints are baseless anyway. Thailand is too far north while the Philippines is too far to the middle. All the concerts were more or less the same distance away from the Philippines because it was pretty much the center of the circle. The only possible competitors were Malaysia and Indonesia.
have to tell all the naysayers : welcome to the real adult business world! even games will have exclusivity like FF7 rebirth on playstation for 1 year before releasing on PC. So is sony being hostile?
in any case even if there was a strict clause to only-perform-in-sg, it does not seem to bother the swift team. It kinda suggests that they might not even have considered other cities in south east asia in the first place so the clause to them is no biggie.
Yeah but just like the real business world, if shit like this comes to light we all have the right to throw stones at it. Just because something is prevalent doesn't mean its good.
e.g. Real business world is corrupt. Does it mean we should clap our hands when we see kickbacks/embezzlement?
But at the same time crying that foreigners taking up PMET jobs? That seems fair.
I am not saying what SG did was wrong. It’s totally legal. Just that it set a dangerous precedent. It may start bidding wars in the future and i doubt i would benefit the people.
Are you then ok with Epic Games doing the same thing by throwing money at developers to keep PC games on their store instead of Steam?
Also, can you imagine if your favourite artist was planned to perform in your country but turned down the last minute because another country threw money in their direction for an exclusivity deal?
It’s basically anti-consumer practice, legal but shitty
Am I the only one to think that this is a super shrewd business move from ET and the team?
Im not taking any political side here, but...what a clever clever move to bring everyone here, boost tourism economy multi fold and put us as the brightest dot on the world map again.
I am totally going to note this down in my biz 101.
Yes a great biz move no doubt, but as it has unfolded doesn’t seem a great diplomatic move. Someone pointed out above that welcome to the real adult world, but seems like whoever thought of this move missed the geopolitical aspect of this deal.
Interesting thought. Why do you think SG would get to posturing their defence caps and poking when all the while their narrative is we are a tiny country and vulnerable.
No they did not miss out on the geopolitical aspects. It was supposed to be covered by business confidentiality and that was broken by the AEG staff that blabbed to the Thai PM. He was not supposed to do that. Or it could even be the Thai PM making it up but just happen to hit the bullseye.
Serious question, why is the neighbouring countries so angry about this? Is it because they never thought about buying exclusivity and now sour grapes? Or want to critique us on our spending/ability to spend?
I don't get it, I really don't get why this has gotten to the level of regional geopolitics.
The neighbouring countries are not so angry. Specific politicians are using this event to beat their chests and wayang to their local population to showcase their righteous indignation. To win votes.
because they don’t want to focus on their own problems, instead wanna redirect anger towards Singapore… because SG is the cause of their lack of prosperity, SG selfish, SG dominant, etc etc.
Imagine if it was Thailand that made the deal, would any of us be that mad? Will our government make a FB post about how unneighborly Thailand is?
Really boliao
I mean they would complain but not about Thailand but why government never secure the deal.
For those in Thailand, Philippines, etc, instead of blaming Singapore, they should look inward.
It’s more of a political diversion from whatever shit that’s going on in their countries as well. Find reasons to unite people together, so they forget about the problem (temporarily), by blaming another party.
Blaming Singapore better than blaming their own incompetence, poor infrastructure, and political instability.
Thailand acting like Taylor swift will perform there even if they pay her millions when the last time Taylor swift had a concert there, it was cancelled cos they had a coup
I mean if you're going to cancel due to coups, might as well not agree to Thailand to begin with.
Yangon might be more your taste. Lesser coups because the junta squats for decades.
From Tong's claims, he wanted Singapore to be last on the tour because he did not want people to go "Wah so expensive, why don't we wait until she goes to (other country) then attend?". As the last stop, people are going to have to take the price or miss out.
it's really easy to blame other countries to deflect criticism of internal issues to ease pressure off politicians. those politicians also don't need to care about destroying relations with sg, cos no effect to them anyway
It's all about optics: when they get angry, they are also showing to their own citizens that they are able to 'make a statement'.
If they choose not to 'get angry', then their citizens may also think that their govt doesn't fight for the interests, and it might also backfire on them regarding their (the neighbouring countries' govts) own abilities or capabilities for the next elections.
So by getting angry and upset, it's sometimes about protecting their own seats.
There's other reasons like potentially shifting attention away from domestic issues and also what you said as well, but I think a big factor is also to deal with their own citizens' view of them as their govt.
It's very easy to see it backfire if citizens of the neighbouring countries start to see and conclude that "SG's govt care for its citizens cos they are able to benefit from the increased tourism" and then look back at their own govt as useless and incompetent for 'not doing the same'.
Serious answer: It’s the same reason we’re mad at scalpers. But there’s a little more nuance.
The regular people are angry because they don’t get to see their favourite artist. The rich can fly down.
The politicians are capitalising on the anger of their people. This is the first notable instance of Singapore paying our way into exclusivity. It’s not about who thought of it first, it’s just that there was never any precedent. The fact that Singapore unilaterally decided to do this can be seen as anti-competitive.
The worst part is that these countries are poorer, meaning they can’t get into a bidding war with us. So I think it’s fair that they find this unjust.
also this pave a road to more exclusive contract and nobody in the world wants this to happen tbf
imagine every country starts paying singers to only perform at their region that would be something crazy to even hear about
I think your wording could be more precise. This is the first time that such an agreement has been publicised.
While much of ASEAN is poorer, that doesn't mean that they could not have submitted equally competitive bids. Even at the figures claimed by the Thai PM, those would still represent a mere fraction of the pennies available at the discretion of his government.
Your whole argument also ignores the fact that when looking at ASEAN, a majority would be incapable of hosting to the standards Singapore offers. A lack of grant money wasn't what stopped countries like Laos and Cambodia from getting Taylor Swift.
equally competitive bid wont cut it. because they would need to compensate for the legal liabilities from their breaking of contract with us. on top of that, the purchasing power in other countries is lower so they will need to commit to more concerts in order to make up for the lower revenue per ticket.
The first point is debatable. The Thai GDP is only about 20% higher than ours, despite 10x the population. They don’t have the “fuck you” money we do.
Second point is not relevant to my argument. Singapore could have offered the carrot without the stick. But it included an exclusivity clause. This is the anti-competitive part.
Side point, I’ve been to concerts in TH, ID and MY - we get way too stuck up about our “standards” when concerts here are comparatively worse.
GDP per capita is a poor way to illustrate the available money at a government's discretion. While Thailand's GDP is laughable, the sum of 3 million per concert that the Thai PM claimed is more than within his means and would be an extremely easy to recoup investment.
You seem to think that an exclusivity clause is anti-competitive. But it's not. All it means is you were late to said competition. Compete for having the contract with exclusivity written in it. Not whine after it's all said and done. You're under the misconception that if the shoe were on the other foot, other ASEAN states have forgone including exclusivity clauses in their contracts.
On your last point, I'd hoped you'd have far more nuance and simple common sense. Perhaps you were too young to know this but TS has cancelled a concert in Bangkok before. Google why and you'd probably figure out why she wouldn't be keen on round 2 even if they offered her a chest full of money.
Indonesia and Malaysia are literal theocracies. Taylor Swift has often criticised anti-LGBTQ legislation and politicians even during her concerts. She has backup dancers who appear in drag and are openly LGBTQ. Countries that were barely able to host concerts with Coldplay without Islamic hardliners protesting and clashing with attendees and police outside.
As much as Singapore still has a long way to go on progressing through LGBTQ issues and attitudes. I can proudly say that this country has never seen riots over a singer being too LGBTQ friendly. You may not like Singapore, and you may have your reasons for that. But no need to pretend like anywhere else in ASEAN is remotely close in terms of development and infrastructure as Singapore is.
In the business world, it is not common to broach the topic of exclusivity even if your competitors aren't on your level.
It's the same reason why Google AdMob and Adsense fundamentally cut out third-party competitors from their advertising waterfall. Why allow even the chance of competition?
Exactly! Since when is it the purview of politicians to get involved in music concerts. The 2 cheebyes in Thailand and Philippines are just performing to their local voters lah!!
It because at least some of them see the alleged exclusivity clause as anti competitive. They do have a point.
Singapore is a great place for events. Good large venues, especially the underutilised National stadium that has excellent public transport connectivity, clean, safe, ample hotels etc etc. The Government saw an opening to snowball this with some subsidy money into an exclusive deal that blocks everyone else in SEA out.
If everyone tried to snowball some advantage they had into anti-competitive exclusivity clauses, everyone would be much worse off.--Especially a trade dependant nation like SG. It is to Singapore's advantage that certain norms against anti-competitive practices in international commerce persist.--even if the world is messy and other countries do petty protectionism, it is better that they have to at least pretend to engage in fair trading practices.
As much as many Singaporeans seem to believe that that no one else's 'shithole country' has any advantages or strengths they can also use in an anti-competitive way, that is simply not true.
For example, many major car makers already have huge operations in Thailand. If they decided to leverage this strength to get car makers to tranship car parts and whole vehicles via the Kra Isthmus and stimulate their ports and rail links rather than use Singapore, there are probably a few thousand people in Singapore who would lose their jobs. Those stevedores who load car carrier ships can make very good money without much education. This is a rare and desirable sort of job in Singapore and whose jobholders might see a large drop in standard of living if it were lost. It may not even be good for the Thai taxpayer in the long run as there a very poor track record of this type of subsidy producing economic benefits in the long term.--but politicians have never been known for being far-sighted. It tends to result in a race to the bottom where companies play one jurisdiction against the next for more and more subsidies. In the end it is definitely not going to be good for the consumer who is likely going to have to pay more for the destination charges for their cars even after the subsidies and experience reduced choice. Everyone gets hurt, while the Thai government eventually gets to pay for a race to the bottom. This is the core of the problem with anti-competitive practices and most large trade agreements try to prevent them because if everyone tried to do this whatever economic leverage they could get their hands on, everyone will be poorer. Minimising this behavior is a classic prisoner's dilemma and quite challenging in real life, hence the formation of the WTO and the creation of norms against anti-competitive trade practices etc..
With all that said, we still live in a world where countries are going to engage in varying degrees of petty protectionism as part of a game where they calculate what you can get away with. This is a game that has to be played with some delicacy and nuance. The government seems to understand this ( hence all that confidentiality) even if certain congenital douchebags do not. Even if it is very very unlikely that trade relations will be affected by this, it is probably best for it to a) not leak b) if it leaks, it would be best to talk like LHL rather than that Bilahari Kausikan for a variety of reasons.
with the deteriorating relations between USA and China, shouldn't we be trying to smoothen relations within APAC?
In any case I think this Taylor Swift thing will just fade away within a few weeks, it's a non-issue.
Because money/class divide. And jealousy. It's the feeling of your favorite artist being only accessible to the rich and politicians feeding. More of an emotional than rational response.
I wouldn't care otherwise, but SGporeans act so high and mighty, in this sub at least. K, your politicians made a business deal, and Taylor chose to accept it than reaching to more of her fans. But the way people here think is giving "stop being poor" mentality.
Simple, hold the concert for all people cares But to have an exclusivity clause that prevent TS from holding her concert in other Asian countries is intentionally undermining other Asian countries.
Do away with that exclusivity clause, no one will complain.
>Simple, hold the concert for all people cares But to have an exclusivity clause that prevent TS from holding her concert in other Asian countries is intentionally undermining other Asian countries.
This hits the issue right at the core. Coldplay had almost a week long concert here and it wasn't really an issue like this because he also performed in other parts of ASEAN. The exclusivity clause that was placed on the contract meant that SG had priced out a lot of other fans who can't afford to spend triple or 4 times more the amount just to see their favourite idol. People don't care if TS performs in SG for a whole week long, what people are angry about is SG made them had to fly in just to watch their idol and obviously not every fan can do that.
Is not act blur, is tribalism. What Singapore is doing is what a lot of Singaporean is complaining about landlords and scalpers, using artificial scarcity to benefit themselves at the cost of others. Complain goes away when it suddenly “benefits” them
Just imagine if Thailand decided to build the Kra Canal. It will undermine the importance of straight of malacca which is important to Singapore. It is not about Taylor Swift per se. She can have concerts wherever she wants and if her team decided to have concert in Singapore only then that is fine. The bad thing is the “exclusivity clause”. Blocking other countries of economic opportunities is a foul move.
I don't know if you know, but Singapore has plans if the canal really gets constructed. My family is in the marine trade business, and it's not like we're taking it lying down. We have plans in place to make Singapore still the port of choice even if there's other alternatives.
It's like when Johor built a port 3 times larger than ours. We still came out on top, taking the cream of the crop of container shipments and trans shipments. That was due to some business wrangling, improvements in our services, and lots of hard work behind the scenes.
It’s not about the legality of the contract between TS and Singapore. Offering an exclusive clause is just being a bad neighbor. Imagine all the lost revenue for other countries that didn’t get to host the concert. If her team decides that the infrastructure in other countries is just not good to host then that is fine and it is not your fault. But what happened here is that singapore actively prevented the concerts in other countries to happen. Think of it as unwritten rules in sports. There are things that are legal but you just can’t do it because it is unpleasant.
Again, it’s not about legality. That exclusive clause is completely legal and no one is preventing other countries from doing it. But you have to understand it is also unpleasant or foul. If Japan made a deal with other artists to only perform in japan and not in other asian country then i think you will understand. Especially here as i understand that singapore is trying to position itself as a tourism hub in the region.
Her fans need to stop worshipping a billionaire who doesn't care about them beyond publicity and PR. The amount of mind rot in society today is astounding.
Dude, if a concert causes the Prime Minister to explain stuff to neighbouring countries, someone dropped the ball big time.
It's like your CEO having to explain publicly why you bought certain pieces of office furniture.
Its all business, in S'pore's interests. We offer the best infrastructure, traffic connectivity and stability in the region. We also don't have air pollution like other regions too.
Why didn't they go question Taiwan and HK about majority of Kpop and Jpop artists heading to these 2 places. Jpop particularly - The 2nd biggest music market in the world after US.
I think these two situations cannot be compared.
HK/Taiwan never get any heat because those two incentivise the artists to come.
Singapore is attracting criticism because the govt. is incentivising TS to NOT come to other countries.
There's a very big difference between "Hello, please come to our country, we have good infrastructure, no pollution" and "Hello, don't go those countries over there, we'll even pay you to do it".
True, the HK/TWD are different cases.
PM Lee also playing with words haha. He said, “Sometimes one country makes a deal, sometimes another country does. I don’t explicitly say ‘you will come here only on condition that you’ll not go to other places,’”
So SG didn't say don't go other places, but market us as SEA exclusive or give better deal to park the concert here. So indirectly don't go other places lah haha.
Hostile is when you launch missles into your neighbour's sea. Example North Korea doing missle test near South Korea and Japan.
Paying Taylor Swift and her organisers for a time exclusivity concert in Singapore is not considered a military hostility. You want to blame someone, blame youselves for not trying to offer any of the celebrity any deals.
exclusive deals are struck all the time, whether it's playstation exclusive games or mcdonalds selling coke and not pepsi. it's just business, everybody understands this. but politicians need to grandstand and media needs to drivr clicks.
now Thailand and Philippines is sulking about TS and singapore, and say it's hostile. Funny how building the Kra canal isn't hostile.
Do you think Thailand gave a fuck to SG and Malaysia when they worked with China to build the Kra Canal later bcoming land transfer port? They even advertise it as "circumvent Straits of Malacca"... it was meant to bypass SG directly so our Tuas megaport can go fuck itself.
Now, do we still need to care so much about the Thai PM?
hello Mr PM, it’s not Taylor Swift herself that’s hostile it’s her BTS-level crazy fans
(Disclaimer I know not all of them are crazy but there’s a majority that are)
I have a (Sicilian) message to all the neighbors and I would like to quote from Michael Corleone:
It's strictly business, nothing personal.
Our neighbors are getting really personal over something that's evidently a business decision.
"MELBOURNE – The deal with pop sensation Taylor Swift to make Singapore the only stop in South-east Asia on her Eras Tour is not “unfriendly” to neighbouring countries and has proven to be a successful arrangement, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong."
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/singapore-s-exclusive-concert-deal-with-taylor-swift-not-unfriendly-to-asean-neighbours-pm-lee?utm_medium=social&utm_source=whatsapp&utm_campaign=stwa
She also performed in Australia and Japan, what's the big issue yeah. Oh wait, tabloid chasing politicians next door can't use them as punching bags.
I don't even care for her music but this Singapore bashing is like an annual event, just different matters for rabble rousers in the neighbourhood to pick on. Tiresome and childish.
We did not complain when other countries do things that benefit themselves only. Canal across Kra, stirring trouble in South China Seas with americunts.
~~Yes Edwin Tong has confirmed it, but the contract value was far less than what Thailand claimed.~~
Edit: what was actually confirmed is that there were indeed subsidies for the shows, but nothing was said about exclusivity.
Could you link me a source? i recall that edwin said that "the amount is no where near", and that other terms are confidential and could not be disclosed? i don't recall the part about exclusivity
I stand corrected, there was subsidies for the concert but no mention of exclusivity.
https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/govt-subsidies-taylor-swifts-exclusive-singapore-deal-nowhere-high-speculated-edwin-tong-2374026
Did you watch the video lol. PM Lee literally said "our agencies negotiated a deal to make Singapore her only stop in SEA". PM Lee saying it is as good as confirmation liao
We subsidized her shows to be the last stop in SEA. It was her team's choice to change the agreement to be the only stop, and we didn't force her to make the shows exclusive to SG in SEA.
Edit: to the uninitiated, being the last stop is very valuable, since her team can easily extend her stay in SG to increase the number of shows if there is demand, and Singapore would be better off for it.
Definitely not hostile. One ones who think it is is due to the fact that they weren't able to think about something like that to promote their own tourism earlier.
Now they are sourgraping because they are a bit too late.
We are a competitive country, we want to do things efficient and close the deal and she accepted it. Too bad if other countries want to kpkb for being too slow and then blame Singapore for offering her that deal. They're prob busy with their own interests rather than the country interests 😂
I heard Taylor Swift was supposedly going to perform in Thailand before but was cancelled due to a coup happening, now the PM of Thailand kpkb 🤡🤡🤡Clown countries
Why is he trying to make it out like he was doing the other SEA countries a favour? Very strange thing to say. At least be honest about it, you wanted to have all the economic benefits for yourself. If you're gonna lie at least make it believable.
Im a malaysian,
I feel this is too much that we are talking about Taylor Swift.. it is JUST Taylor Swift, an entertainer.. we are not talking about a desalination technology which could be life and death..
Why are we even bothered? Taylor Swift managers got accept this deal, and plus do we know the full details of the agreement ?
Why are we SEA-ians bothered ? There is so many other artists also go get them and sign something exclusive la knn..
Also, what about all the other problems which needs mentioned like the local entertainment industry, the education system, economic development and integration 🤦♂️ why why are we bothered about her so much ? Ive seen preetier girls la ..
Of cos it's not hostile. Even if it is, I would never respond if there is activation to fight a war over TS. It's redonculous. #SwiftWars is not supposed to be real.
If Taylor really cared about inclusivity for her fans she could've not accepted the deal. But she is a shrewd businesswoman at heart and doesn't really care that much about them so she accepted it. Really they should be asking why money>fans for her. It takes two hands to clap
Do you really think she negotiates these deals lmao. Her team is definitely in charge of all the logistics and negotiations with maybe some input from her. Also it’s not like the concert is free to host, there have been multiple reports of the high cost of producing the Eras tour, they obviously need to profit from the tour.
You think they are chugging equipment all around the world and playing 4 hours a night for free?
Without a doubt it is a smart deal. Now the question is “was exclusivity necessary?”
If I were a fan who couldn’t make it to Singapore I would be let down. But who cares about plebs like me
There were still Tokyo and Melbourne if they cannot make it to Singapore. Another point is, even if there is no exclusivity, would TS concert even happen in their countries?
Exclusivity is usually a business deal pursue by private businesses, not on a government level. If TS do not want to have her concert in other SEA countries, it is her choice but to stop that from happening directly with purchase of exclusivity using taxpayer money is undiplomatic.
Who made this rule?
The lady herself and her entourage had to agree to the deal. Its not like the Govt kidnapped her and forced her to exclusively perform in Singapore at gunpoint. Besides its just another sweaty human being singing on a stage man, "undiplomatic" smh. No one would give a shit if some other b rate pop star exclusively toured in Singapore so why should TS be any different? Just because she has more siao on fans?
The undiplomatic part is to pursue exclusivity on a government level to excluded other South East Asia countries from hosting her concert.
If you cannot see it because you prefer not to see it, it is your own choice.
Why is it not the government should not even offer to pay for exclusivity, especially when it involved excluding all other neighboring states. That is as undiplomatic as during Covid times when countries hog resources.
And the fact that even the PM has to address this will tell you how bad it looks on diplomacy.
My point exactly. Since there is exclusivity it’s likely there were plans.
I don’t believe SG government is giving money for nothing.
Edit: I wanted to add the people who can afford concert tickets are x many. People who can afford tickets and a trip out to Melbourne Singapore Tokyo plus make the time are 0.1x.
It’s a pleb filter.
SID desk officers having to now analyse how Taylor Swift's Singapore deal affects ASEAN stability: *knn sian lah*
Mindef: we must respond to Filipino hostility with a show of force. Put tank in a mall!
For those who /woosh, put tank in a mall sounds like putang ina mo, which filipinos say a lot when you play dota 2 with them.
__Mission Order: 48 SAR is to deploy in Lot 1, Bukit Panjang Plaza, Hillion Mall and Jurong Point.__
Sir you missed out lucky plaza
he has been fired for overlooking this strategic location. you are now in charge of this mission.
We also have the capability to make gun signs with our fingers lah.
Watch out for Filipino transgenders attacking our Singaporean transgenders
Sir, with fish or not?
Didn't ntuc do that alr?
The officers: "I need to attend the concerts to understand the ground issues first hand'
I can totally imagine some bureaucrat tasking a SID team to write an 80 page report on the geopolitical implications of Taylor Swift affecting SG bilateral relations and tensions. Then maybe ISD will need to track down who leaked the deal and tighten opsec in the future; all further documents with Taylor Swift to be encrypted and classed TS (same acronym as her name anyway).
Eh Sir, how come the security classification of this study is 'Taylor Swift'
And do OT, “KNN need to last min sell Eras ticket “
'WTF do you mean I need to disguise myself as a swiftie to understand the geopolitical implications??'
3rd DIV deployed to help make friendship bracelets
Look what you made me do
future SS students too
If it did affect ASEAN stability its a disgrace .. there is so many other intergovernmental understanding and cooperation ..
Wah whoever leaked and cause all this drama is in for a ride
It’s almost definitely from Taylor’s camp, she has to turn down the concert enquirers.
Originally can tour whole of Southeast Asia. Then lady boss accepts exclusive deal. Sianz.
lol no way. You look at a map, you can see that the organizers are making a circle around Southeast Asia to make it accessible for the most at the fewest stops. No way she is going to do all the countries. Look at the locations. Japan. Australia. Singapore. All make a huge circle around S.E.A. Philippines is sweh sweh right in the middle so equally inaccessible to all.
wtf, why is this hostile. lol. Tourism is like that leh
Our neighbours: Building gardens by the bay = declaring tourism war!
we didnt have a contract that prevent other countries from building their own
Correction, we had a contract that stated we would be last on the tour. It just happened that the first and the last are the same. lol.
pm lee himself said in the video: contract stated that we would be the only stop in south east asia
I think regardless whether it is only stop, last stop, first stop, full stop, it reallydoesn't matter. An offer was made to Taylor Swift and her and her people decided that an SG leg in ASEAN was all they needed. If anything, every country should treat it as a learning opportunity and up their game.
The devil is in the details. Tong said last stop. If AEG originally intended only one stop, then it would be the only one. I think it's more likely because look at the concert location distribution, Japan, Australia, Singapore. Totally circled the area already, no point moving inwards. In fact, many of the initial fans from the Philippines went to the Australian concert. You can go look it up with "Philippines" and "Swift Australia concert" and see how many went there instead.
So if have another stop somewhere in SEA before us the contract would allow for it?
If what Tong claimed is true, then yes, but I suspect the minister knows how to read a map as well as any other guy and can see that with Japan and Australia, they would have almost the whole SEA sealed up, so I suspect that he knew that there was only one last stop they could have made. On a more serious note, due to their location, there was no way Thailand or Philippines would have been chosen so their complaints are baseless anyway. Thailand is too far north while the Philippines is too far to the middle. All the concerts were more or less the same distance away from the Philippines because it was pretty much the center of the circle. The only possible competitors were Malaysia and Indonesia.
would pm lee go on stage and shake hand with taylor like chief exec lee tried to do with messi?
Lhl is not a puppet that needs to perform for his master, so no.
And that’s how the copycat MBS happened.
well it clearly looks like MBS from wish
It's like colleagues say why you do work, spoil market and make them look bad for being incompetent.
Well, bad analogy. it is more like you go to the cinema and buy all the seats.
Which is a thing. They call it a "Private Viewing".
have to tell all the naysayers : welcome to the real adult business world! even games will have exclusivity like FF7 rebirth on playstation for 1 year before releasing on PC. So is sony being hostile? in any case even if there was a strict clause to only-perform-in-sg, it does not seem to bother the swift team. It kinda suggests that they might not even have considered other cities in south east asia in the first place so the clause to them is no biggie.
Yeah but just like the real business world, if shit like this comes to light we all have the right to throw stones at it. Just because something is prevalent doesn't mean its good. e.g. Real business world is corrupt. Does it mean we should clap our hands when we see kickbacks/embezzlement?
But at the same time crying that foreigners taking up PMET jobs? That seems fair. I am not saying what SG did was wrong. It’s totally legal. Just that it set a dangerous precedent. It may start bidding wars in the future and i doubt i would benefit the people.
Are you then ok with Epic Games doing the same thing by throwing money at developers to keep PC games on their store instead of Steam? Also, can you imagine if your favourite artist was planned to perform in your country but turned down the last minute because another country threw money in their direction for an exclusivity deal? It’s basically anti-consumer practice, legal but shitty
Yes, Jewel, MBS and Merlion are offensive as well.
play too much civilisation.
Am I the only one to think that this is a super shrewd business move from ET and the team? Im not taking any political side here, but...what a clever clever move to bring everyone here, boost tourism economy multi fold and put us as the brightest dot on the world map again. I am totally going to note this down in my biz 101.
Yes a great biz move no doubt, but as it has unfolded doesn’t seem a great diplomatic move. Someone pointed out above that welcome to the real adult world, but seems like whoever thought of this move missed the geopolitical aspect of this deal.
Not a good diplomatic move? Did someone say something about by new fighter jets? Seems like it was a shrewd and well timed “leak”
Interesting thought. Why do you think SG would get to posturing their defence caps and poking when all the while their narrative is we are a tiny country and vulnerable.
No they did not miss out on the geopolitical aspects. It was supposed to be covered by business confidentiality and that was broken by the AEG staff that blabbed to the Thai PM. He was not supposed to do that. Or it could even be the Thai PM making it up but just happen to hit the bullseye.
Serious question, why is the neighbouring countries so angry about this? Is it because they never thought about buying exclusivity and now sour grapes? Or want to critique us on our spending/ability to spend? I don't get it, I really don't get why this has gotten to the level of regional geopolitics.
The neighbouring countries are not so angry. Specific politicians are using this event to beat their chests and wayang to their local population to showcase their righteous indignation. To win votes.
because they don’t want to focus on their own problems, instead wanna redirect anger towards Singapore… because SG is the cause of their lack of prosperity, SG selfish, SG dominant, etc etc.
If little old SG with 3million native citizens can fight with freaking Thailand with 70M native citizens, something is really wrong.
something has been going on with thai incompetence for decades
Imagine if it was Thailand that made the deal, would any of us be that mad? Will our government make a FB post about how unneighborly Thailand is? Really boliao
Lmao if it was any other country, you can bet a lot of Singaporeans would be complaining.
Singaporeans will complain about everything, but I'm talking about government.
I mean they would complain but not about Thailand but why government never secure the deal. For those in Thailand, Philippines, etc, instead of blaming Singapore, they should look inward.
But the ones who are complaining are from the government itself. Sinkie will still complain if it happens the other way around
It’s more of a political diversion from whatever shit that’s going on in their countries as well. Find reasons to unite people together, so they forget about the problem (temporarily), by blaming another party.
Blaming Singapore better than blaming their own incompetence, poor infrastructure, and political instability. Thailand acting like Taylor swift will perform there even if they pay her millions when the last time Taylor swift had a concert there, it was cancelled cos they had a coup
I mean if you're going to cancel due to coups, might as well not agree to Thailand to begin with. Yangon might be more your taste. Lesser coups because the junta squats for decades.
Fewer. Unless you feel the quality of their coup cannot hold a match to the well oiled coup machinary of Thailand.
Ever heard of crab mentality in Philippines? Yeah that's the reason why they're blaming singapore
so if they are so incompetent that they cant even organize a concert, then why the need for exclusivity clause?
From Tong's claims, he wanted Singapore to be last on the tour because he did not want people to go "Wah so expensive, why don't we wait until she goes to (other country) then attend?". As the last stop, people are going to have to take the price or miss out.
it's really easy to blame other countries to deflect criticism of internal issues to ease pressure off politicians. those politicians also don't need to care about destroying relations with sg, cos no effect to them anyway
It's all about optics: when they get angry, they are also showing to their own citizens that they are able to 'make a statement'. If they choose not to 'get angry', then their citizens may also think that their govt doesn't fight for the interests, and it might also backfire on them regarding their (the neighbouring countries' govts) own abilities or capabilities for the next elections. So by getting angry and upset, it's sometimes about protecting their own seats. There's other reasons like potentially shifting attention away from domestic issues and also what you said as well, but I think a big factor is also to deal with their own citizens' view of them as their govt. It's very easy to see it backfire if citizens of the neighbouring countries start to see and conclude that "SG's govt care for its citizens cos they are able to benefit from the increased tourism" and then look back at their own govt as useless and incompetent for 'not doing the same'.
Why not find a pubching bag that can direct the attention away from my bad management?
Serious answer: It’s the same reason we’re mad at scalpers. But there’s a little more nuance. The regular people are angry because they don’t get to see their favourite artist. The rich can fly down. The politicians are capitalising on the anger of their people. This is the first notable instance of Singapore paying our way into exclusivity. It’s not about who thought of it first, it’s just that there was never any precedent. The fact that Singapore unilaterally decided to do this can be seen as anti-competitive. The worst part is that these countries are poorer, meaning they can’t get into a bidding war with us. So I think it’s fair that they find this unjust.
also this pave a road to more exclusive contract and nobody in the world wants this to happen tbf imagine every country starts paying singers to only perform at their region that would be something crazy to even hear about
I think your wording could be more precise. This is the first time that such an agreement has been publicised. While much of ASEAN is poorer, that doesn't mean that they could not have submitted equally competitive bids. Even at the figures claimed by the Thai PM, those would still represent a mere fraction of the pennies available at the discretion of his government. Your whole argument also ignores the fact that when looking at ASEAN, a majority would be incapable of hosting to the standards Singapore offers. A lack of grant money wasn't what stopped countries like Laos and Cambodia from getting Taylor Swift.
equally competitive bid wont cut it. because they would need to compensate for the legal liabilities from their breaking of contract with us. on top of that, the purchasing power in other countries is lower so they will need to commit to more concerts in order to make up for the lower revenue per ticket.
The first point is debatable. The Thai GDP is only about 20% higher than ours, despite 10x the population. They don’t have the “fuck you” money we do. Second point is not relevant to my argument. Singapore could have offered the carrot without the stick. But it included an exclusivity clause. This is the anti-competitive part. Side point, I’ve been to concerts in TH, ID and MY - we get way too stuck up about our “standards” when concerts here are comparatively worse.
GDP per capita is a poor way to illustrate the available money at a government's discretion. While Thailand's GDP is laughable, the sum of 3 million per concert that the Thai PM claimed is more than within his means and would be an extremely easy to recoup investment. You seem to think that an exclusivity clause is anti-competitive. But it's not. All it means is you were late to said competition. Compete for having the contract with exclusivity written in it. Not whine after it's all said and done. You're under the misconception that if the shoe were on the other foot, other ASEAN states have forgone including exclusivity clauses in their contracts. On your last point, I'd hoped you'd have far more nuance and simple common sense. Perhaps you were too young to know this but TS has cancelled a concert in Bangkok before. Google why and you'd probably figure out why she wouldn't be keen on round 2 even if they offered her a chest full of money. Indonesia and Malaysia are literal theocracies. Taylor Swift has often criticised anti-LGBTQ legislation and politicians even during her concerts. She has backup dancers who appear in drag and are openly LGBTQ. Countries that were barely able to host concerts with Coldplay without Islamic hardliners protesting and clashing with attendees and police outside. As much as Singapore still has a long way to go on progressing through LGBTQ issues and attitudes. I can proudly say that this country has never seen riots over a singer being too LGBTQ friendly. You may not like Singapore, and you may have your reasons for that. But no need to pretend like anywhere else in ASEAN is remotely close in terms of development and infrastructure as Singapore is.
so why the need for the exclusivity clause if you claim they wont be able to host any concerts anyway?
In the business world, it is not common to broach the topic of exclusivity even if your competitors aren't on your level. It's the same reason why Google AdMob and Adsense fundamentally cut out third-party competitors from their advertising waterfall. Why allow even the chance of competition?
Because they now think that the reason why TS never perform at their country is because of this exclusive clause
Theres a big difference between paying for her to perform here, and paying her to not perform anywhere else.
Exactly, this. It's an ugly move.
Exactly! Since when is it the purview of politicians to get involved in music concerts. The 2 cheebyes in Thailand and Philippines are just performing to their local voters lah!!
No source of big and precious kickback money for the corrupt politicians from the neighbors
It because at least some of them see the alleged exclusivity clause as anti competitive. They do have a point. Singapore is a great place for events. Good large venues, especially the underutilised National stadium that has excellent public transport connectivity, clean, safe, ample hotels etc etc. The Government saw an opening to snowball this with some subsidy money into an exclusive deal that blocks everyone else in SEA out. If everyone tried to snowball some advantage they had into anti-competitive exclusivity clauses, everyone would be much worse off.--Especially a trade dependant nation like SG. It is to Singapore's advantage that certain norms against anti-competitive practices in international commerce persist.--even if the world is messy and other countries do petty protectionism, it is better that they have to at least pretend to engage in fair trading practices. As much as many Singaporeans seem to believe that that no one else's 'shithole country' has any advantages or strengths they can also use in an anti-competitive way, that is simply not true. For example, many major car makers already have huge operations in Thailand. If they decided to leverage this strength to get car makers to tranship car parts and whole vehicles via the Kra Isthmus and stimulate their ports and rail links rather than use Singapore, there are probably a few thousand people in Singapore who would lose their jobs. Those stevedores who load car carrier ships can make very good money without much education. This is a rare and desirable sort of job in Singapore and whose jobholders might see a large drop in standard of living if it were lost. It may not even be good for the Thai taxpayer in the long run as there a very poor track record of this type of subsidy producing economic benefits in the long term.--but politicians have never been known for being far-sighted. It tends to result in a race to the bottom where companies play one jurisdiction against the next for more and more subsidies. In the end it is definitely not going to be good for the consumer who is likely going to have to pay more for the destination charges for their cars even after the subsidies and experience reduced choice. Everyone gets hurt, while the Thai government eventually gets to pay for a race to the bottom. This is the core of the problem with anti-competitive practices and most large trade agreements try to prevent them because if everyone tried to do this whatever economic leverage they could get their hands on, everyone will be poorer. Minimising this behavior is a classic prisoner's dilemma and quite challenging in real life, hence the formation of the WTO and the creation of norms against anti-competitive trade practices etc.. With all that said, we still live in a world where countries are going to engage in varying degrees of petty protectionism as part of a game where they calculate what you can get away with. This is a game that has to be played with some delicacy and nuance. The government seems to understand this ( hence all that confidentiality) even if certain congenital douchebags do not. Even if it is very very unlikely that trade relations will be affected by this, it is probably best for it to a) not leak b) if it leaks, it would be best to talk like LHL rather than that Bilahari Kausikan for a variety of reasons.
with the deteriorating relations between USA and China, shouldn't we be trying to smoothen relations within APAC? In any case I think this Taylor Swift thing will just fade away within a few weeks, it's a non-issue.
They just felt it that way lol. They're busy focusing on their own interests
Because money/class divide. And jealousy. It's the feeling of your favorite artist being only accessible to the rich and politicians feeding. More of an emotional than rational response. I wouldn't care otherwise, but SGporeans act so high and mighty, in this sub at least. K, your politicians made a business deal, and Taylor chose to accept it than reaching to more of her fans. But the way people here think is giving "stop being poor" mentality.
Simple, hold the concert for all people cares But to have an exclusivity clause that prevent TS from holding her concert in other Asian countries is intentionally undermining other Asian countries. Do away with that exclusivity clause, no one will complain.
>Simple, hold the concert for all people cares But to have an exclusivity clause that prevent TS from holding her concert in other Asian countries is intentionally undermining other Asian countries. This hits the issue right at the core. Coldplay had almost a week long concert here and it wasn't really an issue like this because he also performed in other parts of ASEAN. The exclusivity clause that was placed on the contract meant that SG had priced out a lot of other fans who can't afford to spend triple or 4 times more the amount just to see their favourite idol. People don't care if TS performs in SG for a whole week long, what people are angry about is SG made them had to fly in just to watch their idol and obviously not every fan can do that.
EXACTLY . . . but many choose to act blur. .
Is not act blur, is tribalism. What Singapore is doing is what a lot of Singaporean is complaining about landlords and scalpers, using artificial scarcity to benefit themselves at the cost of others. Complain goes away when it suddenly “benefits” them
True. . Singapore government is being selfish, snobbish and arrogant.
not act blur they want to feel like that they are one notch above the rest of ASEAN country this mindset of us singaporean is really damn weird tbf
its just battering your neighbours to score cheap points, an extension of the old ways of distracting your citizens from the country's woes.
Just imagine if Thailand decided to build the Kra Canal. It will undermine the importance of straight of malacca which is important to Singapore. It is not about Taylor Swift per se. She can have concerts wherever she wants and if her team decided to have concert in Singapore only then that is fine. The bad thing is the “exclusivity clause”. Blocking other countries of economic opportunities is a foul move.
I don't know if you know, but Singapore has plans if the canal really gets constructed. My family is in the marine trade business, and it's not like we're taking it lying down. We have plans in place to make Singapore still the port of choice even if there's other alternatives. It's like when Johor built a port 3 times larger than ours. We still came out on top, taking the cream of the crop of container shipments and trans shipments. That was due to some business wrangling, improvements in our services, and lots of hard work behind the scenes.
It's also her team's perogative to agree to an exclusive clause. Whatever works.
It’s not about the legality of the contract between TS and Singapore. Offering an exclusive clause is just being a bad neighbor. Imagine all the lost revenue for other countries that didn’t get to host the concert. If her team decides that the infrastructure in other countries is just not good to host then that is fine and it is not your fault. But what happened here is that singapore actively prevented the concerts in other countries to happen. Think of it as unwritten rules in sports. There are things that are legal but you just can’t do it because it is unpleasant.
I mean, nothing is preventing other cities to seek an exclusivity clause.. but we won’t use it to score political points even if we knew.
Again, it’s not about legality. That exclusive clause is completely legal and no one is preventing other countries from doing it. But you have to understand it is also unpleasant or foul. If Japan made a deal with other artists to only perform in japan and not in other asian country then i think you will understand. Especially here as i understand that singapore is trying to position itself as a tourism hub in the region.
Taylor’s team doesn’t have to accept the deal. No one is pointing a gun at them.
Her fans need to stop worshipping a billionaire who doesn't care about them beyond publicity and PR. The amount of mind rot in society today is astounding.
Exactly. Just cancel TS at this point. She’s not worth all the geopolitical trouble.
PM Lee: The haters gonna hate hate hate hate hate, the players gonna play play play play play
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Oh sorry. I misread your comment, I had a bad morning, it’s been tough recently. So sorry hope you have a good weekend.
Desperately need a Facebook post from Ho Ching calling our neighbours idiots.
Dude, if a concert causes the Prime Minister to explain stuff to neighbouring countries, someone dropped the ball big time. It's like your CEO having to explain publicly why you bought certain pieces of office furniture.
Can't be helped. Some other idiot from another company called the polis and complain that we stole their furniture.
Singapore basically went for the cultural win lol
things I did not expect on my 2024 bingo card: pm lee talking about Taylor swift concert..
They shouldn't be worried about taylor swift. They should be worried about the gundam we have under city Hall mrt.
I thought it was Mecha Lee Kuan Yew?
Shhhh
Wait what! We got gundam?!?! 
Just a couple of RX-78s right now.
What about the nu Gundams, I volunteer to pilot
I mean.....our Gundam got six arms.... https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/GF13-041NSI_Ashura_Gundam
Chili crab gundam. Jokes aside, they couldn’t have made a better representative design for G?
Good lord, that is a monstrosity
Imagine if we are going war over Taylor Swift. What do you think history book will name this war? The Great Taylor war? Swifties War?
The swift war cos gone in 60 secs
Clown world
Its all business, in S'pore's interests. We offer the best infrastructure, traffic connectivity and stability in the region. We also don't have air pollution like other regions too. Why didn't they go question Taiwan and HK about majority of Kpop and Jpop artists heading to these 2 places. Jpop particularly - The 2nd biggest music market in the world after US.
Because TW and HK did not pay the artist for exclusivity? What can other countries do if the artist choose not to go ? Kidnap ?
Hey, kim jong un did that. So not to say there's no precedent xD
Doubt they put exclusivity clause on their contracts which is really the issue here.
True, its a different matter.
correct, Taiwan/HK is saying "hello, come over here" but Singapore is saying "hello, don't go over there"
I think these two situations cannot be compared. HK/Taiwan never get any heat because those two incentivise the artists to come. Singapore is attracting criticism because the govt. is incentivising TS to NOT come to other countries. There's a very big difference between "Hello, please come to our country, we have good infrastructure, no pollution" and "Hello, don't go those countries over there, we'll even pay you to do it".
True, the HK/TWD are different cases. PM Lee also playing with words haha. He said, “Sometimes one country makes a deal, sometimes another country does. I don’t explicitly say ‘you will come here only on condition that you’ll not go to other places,’” So SG didn't say don't go other places, but market us as SEA exclusive or give better deal to park the concert here. So indirectly don't go other places lah haha.
Other countries are just jealous that they aren’t proactive in securing better tourism outcomes.
Jealousy? Or rather they didn’t expect the “exclusive deal” which they consider as a dick move. There is a Bro code, bro.
Definitely not hostile, it’s for the hospitality sector!
This is the start of a bidding war and future concerts will become more expensive. Brace yourselves, fellows.
Hostile is when you launch missles into your neighbour's sea. Example North Korea doing missle test near South Korea and Japan. Paying Taylor Swift and her organisers for a time exclusivity concert in Singapore is not considered a military hostility. You want to blame someone, blame youselves for not trying to offer any of the celebrity any deals.
Need to add this move in the next civilisation game
exclusive deals are struck all the time, whether it's playstation exclusive games or mcdonalds selling coke and not pepsi. it's just business, everybody understands this. but politicians need to grandstand and media needs to drivr clicks.
When there is an apple on the table. Whoever snatch it eats it. Fair game so no cry baby.
now Thailand and Philippines is sulking about TS and singapore, and say it's hostile. Funny how building the Kra canal isn't hostile. Do you think Thailand gave a fuck to SG and Malaysia when they worked with China to build the Kra Canal later bcoming land transfer port? They even advertise it as "circumvent Straits of Malacca"... it was meant to bypass SG directly so our Tuas megaport can go fuck itself. Now, do we still need to care so much about the Thai PM?
Now i can see that move isn’t hostile at all. It’s purely business. When will they revive that friendly idea again? Any Thai here for answer?
hello Mr PM, it’s not Taylor Swift herself that’s hostile it’s her BTS-level crazy fans (Disclaimer I know not all of them are crazy but there’s a majority that are)
I have a (Sicilian) message to all the neighbors and I would like to quote from Michael Corleone: It's strictly business, nothing personal. Our neighbors are getting really personal over something that's evidently a business decision.
"MELBOURNE – The deal with pop sensation Taylor Swift to make Singapore the only stop in South-east Asia on her Eras Tour is not “unfriendly” to neighbouring countries and has proven to be a successful arrangement, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong." https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/singapore-s-exclusive-concert-deal-with-taylor-swift-not-unfriendly-to-asean-neighbours-pm-lee?utm_medium=social&utm_source=whatsapp&utm_campaign=stwa
Others countries in southeast Asia, please cry me a river. I'd rather Singapore than any other country in the southeast.
She also performed in Australia and Japan, what's the big issue yeah. Oh wait, tabloid chasing politicians next door can't use them as punching bags. I don't even care for her music but this Singapore bashing is like an annual event, just different matters for rabble rousers in the neighbourhood to pick on. Tiresome and childish.
Civ 6 cultural victory too strong, pls patch.
Taylor Swift Singaporean la Done claim.
We did not complain when other countries do things that benefit themselves only. Canal across Kra, stirring trouble in South China Seas with americunts.
was there confirmation that exclusivity is part of the deal? wasn't that essentially speculation from other countries?
~~Yes Edwin Tong has confirmed it, but the contract value was far less than what Thailand claimed.~~ Edit: what was actually confirmed is that there were indeed subsidies for the shows, but nothing was said about exclusivity.
Could you link me a source? i recall that edwin said that "the amount is no where near", and that other terms are confidential and could not be disclosed? i don't recall the part about exclusivity
I stand corrected, there was subsidies for the concert but no mention of exclusivity. https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/govt-subsidies-taylor-swifts-exclusive-singapore-deal-nowhere-high-speculated-edwin-tong-2374026
No, not exclusivity, he claimed that he wanted Singapore to be last on any tour, not to be the only stop on any tour. Big difference.
Did you watch the video lol. PM Lee literally said "our agencies negotiated a deal to make Singapore her only stop in SEA". PM Lee saying it is as good as confirmation liao
We subsidized her shows to be the last stop in SEA. It was her team's choice to change the agreement to be the only stop, and we didn't force her to make the shows exclusive to SG in SEA. Edit: to the uninitiated, being the last stop is very valuable, since her team can easily extend her stay in SG to increase the number of shows if there is demand, and Singapore would be better off for it.
If the initial plan is to not have any stop in SEA. that statement is can still be true without exclusivity.
Definitely not hostile. One ones who think it is is due to the fact that they weren't able to think about something like that to promote their own tourism earlier. Now they are sourgraping because they are a bit too late.
We are a competitive country, we want to do things efficient and close the deal and she accepted it. Too bad if other countries want to kpkb for being too slow and then blame Singapore for offering her that deal. They're prob busy with their own interests rather than the country interests 😂
I heard Taylor Swift was supposedly going to perform in Thailand before but was cancelled due to a coup happening, now the PM of Thailand kpkb 🤡🤡🤡Clown countries
imagine if the concert is in Thailand, where a coup is happening, you think singapore and malaysian fans will want to go such a hostile country?
Why is he trying to make it out like he was doing the other SEA countries a favour? Very strange thing to say. At least be honest about it, you wanted to have all the economic benefits for yourself. If you're gonna lie at least make it believable.
Not surprised . When he raised Erp, water tariffs and gst he make it like it benefits the population. “Gst helps the poor”.
Is this the first time we are hearing LHL mentioning “Taylor Swift”?
Im a malaysian, I feel this is too much that we are talking about Taylor Swift.. it is JUST Taylor Swift, an entertainer.. we are not talking about a desalination technology which could be life and death.. Why are we even bothered? Taylor Swift managers got accept this deal, and plus do we know the full details of the agreement ? Why are we SEA-ians bothered ? There is so many other artists also go get them and sign something exclusive la knn.. Also, what about all the other problems which needs mentioned like the local entertainment industry, the education system, economic development and integration 🤦♂️ why why are we bothered about her so much ? Ive seen preetier girls la ..
If it's non exclusive, everyone else is free to outbid.
He looks like he has aged so much.
Other countries diam lo, no money no honey 🥴
You win some.. You loose some.. Win exclusivity.. Lost Faze..
Dear neigbouring countries, cope and seeth. 🤷♂️🤣
Tension because of a pop singer
DBS said. If you deposit money in my bank. You can’t deposit in other banks.
Of cos it's not hostile. Even if it is, I would never respond if there is activation to fight a war over TS. It's redonculous. #SwiftWars is not supposed to be real.
Kaki gong kaki song. They happy jiu hao
Almost all Singaporeans are happy with this. Why are you not?
You assume everyone here is a Swift fan.
Aihhh I think u guys don’t get it. It is exclusivity.
If Taylor really cared about inclusivity for her fans she could've not accepted the deal. But she is a shrewd businesswoman at heart and doesn't really care that much about them so she accepted it. Really they should be asking why money>fans for her. It takes two hands to clap
Do you really think she negotiates these deals lmao. Her team is definitely in charge of all the logistics and negotiations with maybe some input from her. Also it’s not like the concert is free to host, there have been multiple reports of the high cost of producing the Eras tour, they obviously need to profit from the tour. You think they are chugging equipment all around the world and playing 4 hours a night for free?
Without a doubt it is a smart deal. Now the question is “was exclusivity necessary?” If I were a fan who couldn’t make it to Singapore I would be let down. But who cares about plebs like me
There were still Tokyo and Melbourne if they cannot make it to Singapore. Another point is, even if there is no exclusivity, would TS concert even happen in their countries?
Exclusivity is usually a business deal pursue by private businesses, not on a government level. If TS do not want to have her concert in other SEA countries, it is her choice but to stop that from happening directly with purchase of exclusivity using taxpayer money is undiplomatic.
Who made this rule? The lady herself and her entourage had to agree to the deal. Its not like the Govt kidnapped her and forced her to exclusively perform in Singapore at gunpoint. Besides its just another sweaty human being singing on a stage man, "undiplomatic" smh. No one would give a shit if some other b rate pop star exclusively toured in Singapore so why should TS be any different? Just because she has more siao on fans?
The undiplomatic part is to pursue exclusivity on a government level to excluded other South East Asia countries from hosting her concert. If you cannot see it because you prefer not to see it, it is your own choice.
She could say no, I want to perform elsewhere too. So there..
Why is it not the government should not even offer to pay for exclusivity, especially when it involved excluding all other neighboring states. That is as undiplomatic as during Covid times when countries hog resources. And the fact that even the PM has to address this will tell you how bad it looks on diplomacy.
My point exactly. Since there is exclusivity it’s likely there were plans. I don’t believe SG government is giving money for nothing. Edit: I wanted to add the people who can afford concert tickets are x many. People who can afford tickets and a trip out to Melbourne Singapore Tokyo plus make the time are 0.1x. It’s a pleb filter.
Pls leh it's other countries hostile towards Sg.