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MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was called on during a key regional summit Tuesday to defend an exclusive deal his city-state struck with Taylor Swift that prevents the pop star from wearing her current Eras Tour to any other place in the world. Southeast Asia.
Swift will perform six concerts from March 2 to 9 in Singapore under an exclusive deal that has been criticized by some Southeast Asians who complain they have been deprived of the tourism boom her concerts have brought elsewhere.
In a sign of the international phenomenon Swift has become, a journalist asked the Singapore elder statesman to confirm the deal and comment on whether it undermined the spirit of cooperation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a 10-nation bloc known as by the acronym ASEAN of which Singapore is a key member.
Lee was at a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, a 60-year-old self-proclaimed Swiftie who revealed that Swift came in second on his Spotify Wrapped 2023 list after fellow American diva Lana Del Ray. The Wrap is the smoking giant’s annual feature that counts down the songs a listener has played the most over the past year.
Albanese will host the ASEAN summit in the Australian city of Melbourne, which marks 50 years since Australia became the bloc’s first external partner.
Other questions at the news conference covered topics such as rising tensions in the South China Sea, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the likelihood of China joining a regional free trade pact known by the unwieldy acronym CPTPP.
Lee confirmed that Swift received “certain incentives” from a government fund set up to rebuild the tourism industry after COVID-19 disruptions to make Singapore its only destination in Southeast Asia. She did not say how much the deal cost.
He said he did not consider the agreement to be hostile towards his ASEAN neighbours.
“It has turned out to be a very successful agreement. “I don’t see it as hostile,” Lee said.
Lee did not respond directly when asked if he had encountered “bad blood” between other leaders because of the deal.
Lees suggested that if Singapore had not reached an exclusive agreement, a neighboring country could have done so.
“Sometimes one country makes a deal, sometimes another country makes a deal. I don’t explicitly say ‘you will come here only on the condition that you don’t go to other places,’” Lee said.
Swift’s representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lee said he hoped Australia would similarly make “sensible and mutually acceptable arrangements” with Swift when she performed in Sydney and Melbourne before flying to Singapore. Lee said she did not know what Australia’s arrangements were.
“If that is what needs to be done to get an outcome that is mutually beneficial and that, from Singapore’s point of view, serves not only to grow the economy but also to attract visitors and goodwill from across the region, no I think Let’s see why not,” Lee said.
“If we had not made such an arrangement, would she have come to another place in Southeast Asia or to more places in Southeast Asia? Maybe, maybe not. “These are things she will decide,” Lee added.
Albanese attended one of Swift’s concerts in Sydney last month.