Taylor Swift’s grandmother revealed to have S’porean connections

SINGAPORE: Taylor Swift electrified fans with the start of her “Eras Tour Concert” at the National Stadium on 2 March, igniting a fervent response from the audience.

Amidst her captivating performance, Swift divulged her familial ties to Singapore, shedding light on her mother’s upbringing in the city.

This prompted some online sleuthing, and one individual successfully discovered interesting information about Swift’s family in Singapore, especially concerning her grandmother, Marjorie Finlay.

During her live, Taylor Swift disclosed, “My mother actually spent her childhood in Singapore with her family. So, a lot of the time when we would come here on tour my mom would take me, and drive me past her old house and where she used to go to school.

During her performance of ‘Marjorie,’ Taylor Swift’s Singaporean fans illuminated the venue with their phone lights as she sang the poignant melody.

The song, penned as a tribute to her late maternal grandmother, held profound significance for Swift.

“I’ve been hearing about Singapore my whole life. So, to get to come here and play a show this big, with so many beautiful and generous people who are just honoring…essentially honoring my family with what you just did with that song. It means the world. I already love you, we’re gonna have a blast tonight.”

Taylor Swift’s grandmother’s connection to Singapore

On Sunday (3 March), through a Facebook post, Singaporean writer and poet Koh Buck Song brought to light his discovery of connections to Taylor Swift’s grandmother, Marjorie Finlay, within Singapore.

While watching the clips of Finlay in “Marjorie” lyric video, released in 2020, he noticed that some scene appeared to have been shot in Singapore.

In one clip, she emerges from a house and enters a car, with a license plate bearing an early Singaporean number: “SM8860.”

This subtle yet significant detail suggests the presence of Swift’s family in Singapore during that period, possibly residing in colonial-era bungalows in “somewhere like Tanglin or Sembawang,” Koh guessed.

Further investigation also revealed Marjorie Finlay’s remarkable legacy in the arts.

Koh found an old article from The Straits Times (ST) dating back to 1968 about Finlay, which revealed that she had performed in Singapore, much like her granddaughter.

Photo: Newspapersg/NLB

Commencing her acting career subsequent to a notable participation in a singing competition in 1950, she garnered acclaim through appearances in television shows and as an emcee.

Her operatic prowess earned her renown in Singapore and Thailand, notably starring as the soprano lead singer in the opera “The Bartered Bride,” an opera by Czech composer Bedřich Smetana, as reported by ST on 21 November, 1968.

The opera ran for five consecutive evenings at the Victoria Theatre.

Her performances took her to various corners of the globe, spanning locations such as Venezuela, Cuba, and Puerto Rico.

In an interview with Lianhe Zaobao, Koh expressed his astonishment at the Singaporean connection embedded within Swift’s music video, “Marjorie,” which had remained largely unnoticed since its release four years ago.

Prior to Swift’s recent revelation, many assumed the video was filmed in the United States or elsewhere, oblivious to its Singaporean ties.

Swift’s maternal family moved to Singapore because of her grandfather’s job, shaping her mother’s childhood years in the country.

Subsequently, they relocated back to Texas, and Finlay passed away in 2003 when Swift was only 14, as reported by Rolling Stone.

Online reactions on Koh’s FB post

Online users on Koh’s Facebook post comment section were taken aback by the revelation and commended him for sharing this intriguing detail, with some expressing their own theories about the location depicted in the lyric video.

One user remarked, “I’m not a Taylor Swift fan, but this is an excellent find,” adding that they are liking the song “Marjorie.”

“Certainly not in Sembawang. Looks more like a rented private residence,” another one user wrote.

Some users also speculated about the possibility of Taylor Swift’s grandfather working at Shell in Singapore.

“Most probably a Shell oil rig,” Koh responded, “…(perhaps) on Pulau Bukom?”

However, another user countered, stating that “oil rigs are for offshore drilling and exploration, and would not have been stationed at Bukom.”

A different user suggested that the vehicle could have been a 1966 Ford Galaxie model.