Today (March 9) marks the final day of Taylor Swift’s only stop in Southeast Asia, in Singapore.
This took place over 2 weekends and from our social media feeds, it seems that a large crowd of Swifties in the region flocked to the small nation which inadvertently gave a boost to their economy.
Surrounding countries such as Malaysia are looking on with envy and the former Minister of Youth and Sports, Faizal Azumu, also known as Peja, has said that this is a “missed opportunity”.
“It is a missed opportunity. We have A-list artists and content in our grasp via the arrangement with ASM. We must be more aggressive to get them in. The huge economic windfall is beyond politics.”
Netizens in the comments were saying that his coalition was the one who protested when other international acts made their way here.
The current Minister of Sports and Youth, Hannah Yeoh, has also called Peja out by asking him to be more consistent before listing out the basic problems at the Bukit Jalil Stadium that she had to resolve when taking over the ministry.
“Glad PN now openly talks about concert benefits. Be consistent & stop protesting.”
“To refresh Peja’s memory, when we took over SNBJ in Dec 2022, we purchased canvas and solved flooding to avoid using a dustpan during rain. Basic stuff you know, before the lights come on for the big stars,” she continued.
With this reply, it seems that the government is planning for big acts to come and netizens started making their requests.
Forbes reported that according to economists’ estimations, Taylor Swift’s tour “will add between SGD 300-400 million (RM1.054-1.405 billion) to Singapore’s economy in Q1.”
In other reports, advisory firm Sportswork Group Sdn Bhd says that Taylor Swift’s concert was never offered to Malaysia.
What do you think of this? Let us know in the comments!
