Cal's Lucas Asia Correspondent

Asia correspondent

Updated Thursday, March 7, 2024-02:11

  • USA Taylor Swift's elections: Trump or Biden?

The Taylor Swift phenomenon is not only a political problem in the United States.

Inside her house, ahead of the November elections, there is concern among Republicans about the enormous influence that a public endorsement by the superstar of President Biden could have.

There is no better campaign weapon right now than having a beloved artist with 300 million followers on social networks on your side.

But beyond Washington's internal battles,

Swift has become a geopolitical phenomenon

.

The Pennsylvania singer is currently in Singapore, one of the stops on her Eras Tour.

She has already performed three nights and has three more to go in the city-state before more than 300,000 fans at each

show

.

Tickets for all concerts are sold out.

70% of attendees come from abroad.

Flights into Singapore skyrocketed 186% and hotel reservations quintupled.

Swift's presence has already moved more than 370 million dollars in this small, rich country of just five and a half million inhabitants.

What no one expected was that this event would cause a strange diplomatic crisis in Southeast Asia.

Singapore has signed an exclusive contract with the American to guarantee that this country is the only one in the entire region in which she acts.

That has really pissed off the neighbors.

"They have paid Taylor Swift up to three million dollars per show on the condition of exclusivity," revealed Srettha Thavisin, Prime Minister of Thailand.

"This is not how good neighbors act," Filipino legislator Joey Salceda also said.

These days Thai, Filipino and Chinese tourists willing to pay a fortune to see Swift continue to land in Singapore.

The singer made a previous stop last month in Tokyo, with four concerts that represented a necessary boost for the diminished local economy, leaving around 35,000 yen (215 million euros).

"The impact of Taylor Swift's visit will reverberate throughout the country's economy. Our agencies negotiated an agreement with her to make Singapore her only stop in Southeast Asia. We do not know if, without the exclusivity contract, she would have visited others places in the region, surely not," defended Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Asian fans criticize that Singapore, using its checkbook, has "kidnapped" their favorite star.

How could this small city-state, with little land and virtually no natural resources, become one of the richest countries in the world and a strange beacon of economic and social stability in one of the most politically unstable regions in the world?

The blame for this success story lies with Lee Kuan Yew, the father of today's Singapore, who died in 2015. An autocratic leader who, since Malaysia's independence in 1965, promoted (with low taxes, social services such as housing and health care, and liberal immigration policies) to transform the former British colony into a major global manufacturing and financial center.

Lee turned the island state into one of the richest places in the world and a role model for other governments in Asia, starting with reformist Deng Xiaoping's China, which copied some of the economic policies.