Bad blood! Singapore’s PM is defending the exclusive deal with Taylor Swift in which the county paid the hitmaker ‘$3 million a show’ to perform only in her country.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has defended an exclusive deal they reached with Taylor Swift that prevents the pop star from taking her current Eras Tour anywhere else in Southeast Asia.

Swift fans have been flocking to Singapore and spending thousands of dollars on travel and accommodation just to see her on the Southeast Asia leg of her Eras Tour.

Singapore is paying the 34-year-old artist $3 million per show not to perform anywhere else in the region as a ploy to boost tourism in the post-pandemic city-state.

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.

More than 300,000 tickets have been sold for Swift’s shows in Singapore.

In a sign of the international phenomenon Swift has become, the elder Singapore statesman was asked by a journalist to confirm the deal and comment on whether it undermined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ spirit of cooperation.

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 Rey.

Albanese is hosting the ASEAN summit in the Australian city of Melbourne marking 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.

He 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 around the world, region “I don’t see why not,” Lee said.

‘If we had not made such an arrangement, would you have come to any other 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.