[Editor’s note: A previous version of this article said Taylor Swift was at Koma restaurant between her shows. Mothership has received new information that she visited the restaurant on Feb. 28. This article has been updated accordingly.]
Outside of performing at her six sold-out shows here, Taylor Swift has had some time to see Singapore.
One of the places she's choosing to spend her time? Japanese restaurant Koma in Marina Bay Sands (MBS) — yes, the one with the torii gates commonly featured in the photos that diners take to mark their visits there.
Photo via Koma website.
Swift was seen at the venue with an entourage that included security personnel.
In a video of Swift at Koma, one of the security personnel escorting the pop star appears to spot the person taking the video and shines a bright light toward them, gesturing to them to stop.
GIF via video by Sho Takei.
The video was taken by 31-year-old Sho Takei, who spoke to Mothership about his experience on Feb. 28.
He said Swift and her group had been at their table for some time before anyone realised it was her, explaining that the pop star had been seated facing away from the diners at other tables.
It was only when he got up to go to the bathroom that he happened to cross paths with Swift, and realised that it was her.
Takei said it was likely the bright red colour of his phone that attracted the attention of the security personnel.
He didn't manage to catch Swift in concert while he was here, as he was in Singapore for a short work trip, as the company he founded — Japan-based tech recruitment firm Hyre — has an office here.
However he joked that didn't need to see the concert, since he'd already had that close interaction with her while on his trip to the bathroom.
Takei was also in Singapore previously as a contestant in the first season of Netflix series "The Apprentice: One Championship Edition", which was filmed here.
@mothershipsg Did Mother leave her room? #taylorswift #sgnews #fyp ♬ original sound - Mothership
Video ended up being circulated unexpectedly
While the video was taken on Feb. 28, footage started to be circulated more widely from around Mar. 5, when it was posted publicly by a TikTok user.
Takei did not post the video publicly, but shared that he had sent it to some friends. He suspects they may have shared it with their friends, which then led to it getting circulated to strangers such as the TikTok user.
"It's funny, because how I noticed this is actually [that] my friend in Singapore was like, 'Dude, your video is going viral,'" said Takei.
"I didn't even know this was going to be a big thing," he said.
On TikTok, a copy of Takei's video was posted with a caption calling the security personnel "really rude".
The brief clip prompted some discussion in the comments section over whether Swift was entitled to privacy in the venue, with some opining that one was entitled to film in public space, while others pointed out that overly-persistent filming could be considered harassment.
Familiar with Singapore
Swift spoke about her previous trips to Singapore during a recent concert, saying:
"A lot of [times] when we would come here on tour, my mum would take me and drive me past her old house, and where she used to go to school."
Swift's Singapore connection — first revealed in 2011 by her mother Andrea, who attended the Singapore American School — has been firmly established after Swift mentioned it to the audience at her first concert on Mar. 2.
It has also been discovered that Swift's grandmother, Marjorie, was an opera singer who performed here in 1968.
Singaporean writer Koh Buck Song also spotted several scenes from Singapore in the music video for Swift's song "marjorie", which was written as a tribute to her grandmother.
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Top photo via Sho Takei and Koma's website