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“The city-state’s culture minister says the subsidy awarded to the pop icon “is not as high as speculated.”
Singapore has downplayed the size of a grant it paid to Taylor Swift after the city-state’s efforts to attract the pop icon sparked complaints from regional residents.
Singapore Culture Minister Edwin Tong said on Monday that speculation about the size of the grant was “not accurate”.
“I can say that it is not accurate or as high as speculated, but due to corporate confidentiality, we cannot reveal the size and specific conditions of the subsidy,” Tong told Parliament in response to questions from lawmakers.
Tong said the government was also confident the economic benefits from Swift’s six concerts in the city would be “significant and exceed the size of the subsidy.”
Tong’s comments come after Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said at a business forum last month that Singapore had paid Swift between $2 million and $3 million on the condition that she not perform in any other countries. from Southeast Asia.
“If I had known this, I would have brought the shows to Thailand,” Srettha told the Bangkok Post. “Concerts can generate added value for the economy.”
Last week, Philippine lawmaker Joey Salceda called on Manila to question Singapore over the alleged subsidy, saying such behavior “is not what good neighbors do.”
Singapore officials had previously acknowledged offering Swift a grant to come to the city-state, without disclosing its terms, because of the benefits it would have in tourism-related sectors such as accommodation, retail and restaurants. .
Singapore’s Channel News Asia has reported that hotels and airlines saw demand for flights and accommodation around concert dates increase by up to 30 percent.
Aside from four shows in Japan last month, Swift’s concerts in Singapore are the only stops she makes in Asia as part of her The Eras tour.
The sold-out shows, which run until March 9, are attended by some 300,000 fans, including those from neighboring countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.
Swift, one of the most successful music artists of all time with 14 Grammy Awards and hundreds of millions of album sales worldwide, performed the first of her concerts in Singapore on Saturday after wrapping up the Australian leg of her tour. last week with a show in front of 81,000 fans at Sydney’s Accor Stadium.