“Don’t be afraid to speak your truth, even if your voice trembles. Your words have the power to ignite change and inspire others.”
– Taylor Swift, American singer-songwriter, December 13, 1989
These recent months have been pretty tough on all Taylor Swift fans. You know that feeling when you’re dying to hear new music from her, but it’s just out of reach? What a ‘cruel summer’ this is turning out to be for Swifties.
Last Wednesday, things got really interesting. My friends who spend their days dealing with the ASEAN’s second largest stock exchange in Bangkok, Thailand, pulled off something incredible. They managed to score tickets to a Taylor Swift concert, beating out a crowd of 1.4 million other customers of United Overseas Bank Limited (UOB).
I bet you’re thinking, “Cool, they’re gonna tell us all about the concert, how they’ll be singing along to the Anti-Hero song, the Swifties.” But, frankly, that’s not the most exciting part. I mean, sure, my wife and kids and I are big Taylor Swift fans – we love her songs! But what really grabbed my attention, and what I think you’ll find super interesting too, is the whole behind-the-scenes drama that played out.
You see, a Taylor Swift concert isn’t just some regular concert. It’s like an all-out battle royale in the digital world, where the swift and quick get to survive. The fans here in South-East Asia have dubbed it “The Great War,” and it’s as intense as it sounds. Millions of super-obsessed Swifties, armed to the teeth with laptops, phones, tablets – you name it – all trying to score tickets to one of her six shows in Singapore next March.
The real deal wasn’t all rosy and dreamy with Swifties harmonising to “Love Story” under a twinkling night sky. No, it was more like a scene from the Hunger Games, but Swift-style. Everyone was clawing and scratching for tickets, and those scalpers… man, they turned into real life monsters.
Then there’s the whole UOB and Singapore angle. They played their cards right by covering all the concert logistics costs for the exclusive rights in the region, using it as bait to reel in customers. The result? People, driven by FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), tripping over themselves to get tickets, even if they didn’t know Taylor Swift from Taylor Lautner. Even my little girl, Bella, who’s only 11, came up to me one day. She walked into my room, all serious-like, and asked me if I could somehow make things happen with the bank.
“You’ve got lots of friends at the bank, right, didi?” she said. How do you explain to an 11-year-old that it doesn’t work like that?
Me, being the good dad, finally decided to roll with it despite being way back in the line – like 398,590th back. Yeah, we were literally at the tail end of this thing. But, against my better judgment, and with my patience wearing thin, I jumped headfirst into the chaos.
In the end, though, I looked at the prices and had to sit her down and explain that it was just too pricey and wasn’t worth breaking the bank for. It wasn’t an easy thing to do, but sometimes being a dad means making tough calls. And when your dad’s an economist, well, money talks get a bit more complicated.
Don’t even get me started on the scalpers. They were like sharks smelling blood in the water. Selling tickets at double, even triple prices on online platforms like Carousell, with some VIP tickets that were originally S$1,200, or around RM4,140 – were going for an insane S$16,000! That’s about RM55,215! Thank goodness, the city-state didn’t have any ministers around whining about the whole situation – you know, like that Madani fellow, Fahmi Fadzil? Luckily, we didn’t have to listen to any of that.
The craziness didn’t end there. Some people started selling something called “access codes”. These were just fancy words for a chance to buy tickets when they went on sale to everyone. These codes, which were originally free, mind you, were being sold for up to S$500 each! That’s about RM1,725.
The worst part? These codes didn’t even guarantee a ticket. It’s like selling someone a lottery ticket with no promise of a win. Pretty low move, if you ask me.
Doing a little math, I figured that the concert would pump around RM450 million into the Singaporean banking system, eight months before the concert even strikes its first note. I’m pretty sure about 30% of those 1.4 million UOB customers who got tickets were newbies, who opened accounts just to get their hands on tickets. All of them had to cough up a minimum deposit of RM100. That adds up to an extra RM43 million sitting pretty in UOB accounts. Not a bad day at the office for UOB, eh?
Once people got the tickets, they rushed to book accommodations. At least RM1,000 per night times 50,000 guests for six days, that’s another RM300 million. All these extra funds will keep Singapore’s cash registers ringing in the coming months and that’s not even counting flight tickets. So, even before Taylor Swift sings her first note, she’s already shaking off a ton of cash into the Singaporean economy.
Surprisingly, Swifties from Thailand bagged the most tickets. Is this a 5G thing? Does a faster internet connection help secure tickets quicker? My friend used an iPad and a PC to log in, and there was a huge difference in the queue numbers between the two devices. But don’t sweat it – when it comes to sharing gossip online, our ‘tentera bawang’ are the best in the world, no kidding. Who needs 5G when we’ve got lightning-fast fingers and hot tea to spill, right?
Then there were those who kept refreshing the page only to see their queue numbers shoot up drastically. And let’s not forget about the ones who managed to get through and make the payment, only to receive a “Transaction Unsuccessful” message. Turned out they maxed out their cards.
Wrapping up, I can’t help but get excited about how all this money and tech stuff mix up in the entertainment world. We don’t get much of this action in Malaysia. Feels like we’re forgotten when big stars plan their world tours. Maybe it’s high time we step up our game, don’t you think? After all, as her song says, “Look what you made me do.” Taylor, you sure know how to get the world on fire!
