Taylor Swift’s Grandma Stayed In Colonial Bungalow In Singapore During '60s, Was Lead Soprano Singer At Victoria Theatre

On Saturday (Mar 2), pop superstar Taylor Swift kicked off her first show at the National Stadium to 50,000 screaming fans.

Besides bragging rights for being the only Eras Tour stop in Southeast Asia; Singapore has a connection to the singer that goes way back.

A little-known fact that the 34-year-old highlighted back in 2014 was how her mum spent part of her growing up years on our little red dot when the family moved here due to her father’s work.

This time, Taylor shed light on her family’s past as she played the opening chords to ‘Marjorie’, a song dedicated to her maternal grandmother Marjorie Finlay, from her Evermore era.

Marjorie passed away in 2003 at the age of 74, a year before Taylor signed her first record deal at 14.

“My mum actually spent a lot of her childhood with her mum, dad, and sister growing up in Singapore,” she revealed, drawing gasps of surprise from the crowd at the National Stadium.

“So a lot of the time when we came here on tour, my mum would take me and drive past her old house and where she used to go to school, and so, I’ve been hearing about Singapore my whole life.”

Scroll down for the video.

Marjorie married construction engineer Robert Finlay in 1952 and moved to Cuba. They quickly left for Puerto Rico due to the political unrest in Cuba before settling and staying in Singapore for about 10 years.

After Taylor's revelation, it did not take long before someone managed to find traces of Marjorie, while she was here in Singapore.

In a post on Facebook, poet, and former journalist Rick Koh, 60 says Marjorie can be seen coming out of a black-and-white colonial house at the 0.19s mark of her namesake song.

Running towards a car with the license plate ‘SM8860’, Rick speculated that the residence could be in either Sembawang or Tanglin.

Rick also tagged the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and Singapore Land Authority (SLA) for more information on the license plate number and location of the bungalow.

Taylor Swift family heritage tour, anyone?

Upon further digging, Rick also found out that Marjorie was featured in The Straits Times on Nov 21, 1968 where it was reported that she was chosen to play the soprano lead for five nights in the production of The Bartered Bride at the Victoria Theatre.

ST also shared that Marjorie was also an emcee and regularly appeared on television shows in both Singapore and Thailand.

In a phone interview with Lianhe Zaobao, Rick shared that he curiously watched the music video for ‘Marjorie’ after the Grammy winner shared about her links to our country.

“If Taylor hadn’t mentioned her family and Singapore at the concert, I believe many people would not have discovered that the video clips were shot in here [in Singapore] and realise that the house and car don’t look like it’s in the US,” he shared.

After Rick’s revelation, local netizens quickly took to the comments discussing where the exact location of the bungalow was.

“Wow! That’s amazing! Hope LTA and SLA can help make connections,” wrote a user.

"I wonder if the car plate number is still in use," mused another.

Photos: Zaobao, Rich Koh Buck Song/Facebook, taylorswift/Instagram, marjoriemfinally/Instagram