SINGAPORE – No one has made a bigger impact in the music world – or in the greater pop culture landscape – in recent times than Taylor Swift.
It has been impossible to avoid the American star as she dominated news headlines and social media posts throughout the year for her many achievements on and offstage.
The 34-year-old’s music conquered both digital streams and physical sales worldwide. Her ongoing sixth concert tour, Eras, is the highest-grossing ever, according to Guinness World Records.
It has earned US$1.04 billion (S$1.39 billion), more than the next two top-grossing tours – by fellow American stars Beyonce and Bruce Springsteen – combined.
Even cinemas received a boost from her stardust when her movie, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, became the highest-grossing concert film of all time after its October release, chalking up box-office takings of US$250 million worldwide to date.
With Swift’s net worth estimated at US$1.1 billion, Forbes declared her as the first person to become a billionaire solely through music sales and performances alone. Her assets include US$125 million in real estate.
In August, entertainment website People reported that she gave out more than US$55 million in bonuses to everyone working on her tour, from band members and dancers to sound technicians and caterers.
Social media and news outlets alike could not get enough of her love life, whether it was the reported dalliances with The 1975 singer Matty Healy or with her current beau, American football star Travis Kelce.
In December, she became the first entertainer to receive Time magazine’s Person of the Year accolade – which it started doling out in 1927 – beating contenders such as King Charles III and Barbie.
Closer to home, Swift was the foremost topic of conversation among music fans in Singapore and made a big impact on the concert industry here when it was announced she would perform six gigs at the National Stadium in March 2024. She had previously performed at the much smaller Singapore Indoor Stadium in 2011, 2014 and 2015.
Her feat will be matched only by British band Coldplay, who will play six nights at the same cavernous venue in January.
All of Swift’s Eras tickets here, an estimated 330,000 (the National Stadium has a capacity of 55,000), were snapped up moments after they went on sale in July. Tears flowed and tempers flared when fans encountered technical issues trying to buy tickets online and offline.
The battle among South-east Asian Swifties for tickets got so intense that fans referred to the whole episode as “The Great War”. They came up with various strategies to secure tickets – many camped out outside SingPost outlets islandwide, while others opened multiple Web browsers on various devices to increase their chances of scoring tickets.
Scalpers had a field day, with touts offering tickets at up to 30 times their original price on online platform Carousell.
The excitement spilled over into the finance sector. Because UOB cardholders were entitled to a pre-sale and reserved tickets, application submissions surged by 50 per cent for the bank’s debit cards and 45 per cent for its credit cards.
Left to their own devices, Singaporeans also listened to Swift more than any other artiste on streaming services.
She was the most streamed music act among local Spotify users, beating top draws such as Canadian singer The Weeknd, Taiwanese star Jay Chou and South Korean group BTS. She took three spots on the top albums list – Midnights (2022) at No. 1, Lover (2019) at No. 3 and 1989 (2014) at No. 5. She was also the top artiste among Spotify users worldwide.
On Apple Music, which hailed her 2023’s Artist of the Year, subscribers listened to her more than any other musician. Two of her tunes were among the Top 10 songs streamed by Singaporean users – Anti-Hero at No. 3 and Cruel Summer at No. 6.
It helped that she was highly productive in the music studio in 2023. She released two re-recorded albums, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) in July and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) in October. They are part of an ongoing project to re-record her past works, in a move to help her regain the rights to her music. Both albums shot to No. 1 on music charts worldwide.
Throughout the year, Swift’s love life was news fodder, but her romance with Kelce, who plays for American football team Kansas City Chiefs, has taken things to another level.
Unlike her past relationships, this romance has played out publicly. She would turn up for his games and trigger a media frenzy, stealing the spotlight away from the players. Sales of Kelce’s jersey have reportedly shot up 400 per cent.
Earlier in 2023, she split with long-time boyfriend, English actor Joe Alwyn. She was photographed soon after holding hands with Healy. But that relationship, which vexed many fans, given Healy’s reported misogynistic and racist streak, fizzled out fast.
In a rare interview published in December, Swift told Time magazine she was done with keeping a low profile on her relationships.
“When you say a relationship is public, that means I’m going to see him do what he loves, we’re showing up for each other, other people are there, and we don’t care,” she says of Kelce, 34.
“The opposite of that is you have to go to an extreme amount of effort to make sure no one knows that you’re seeing someone. And we’re just proud of each other.”
With the Eras tour going strong, six nominations at the upcoming Grammy Awards and at least one new release – a re-recording of her sixth album Reputation (2017) – in the works, it is safe to say that Swift’s reign is waxing, not waning.
Long live the queen of pop.
