When you find out Taylor Swift’s mom went to the same school you did in Singapore, the degrees of separation begin to close. Taylor Swift’s Singapore links get deeper with 1960s yearbook photos

SINGAPORE – American superstar Taylor Swift’s mother Andrea spent her childhood in Singapore and was a student at the Singapore American School.

The international school told The Straits Times that Mrs Swift, now 66, studied at its King’s Road campus between 1968 and 1969.

A yearbook photograph seen by ST shows 10-year-old Andrea Finlay – Mrs Swift’s maiden name – seated in the front row of her fourth-grade class in 1968.

Mrs Swift is widely applauded as a brilliant “momager” – a portmanteau of mother and manager – who played a big part in using her marketing smarts to help propel her daughter to superstardom.

There has been keen interest in Swift’s maternal lineage after the 34-year-old told fans during her March 2 concert at the National Stadium that her mother spent a lot of her childhood in Singapore with her parents and sister.

“A lot of the time when we came here on tour, my mum would take me and drive me past her old house and where she used to go to school. So, I’ve been hearing about Singapore my whole life,” the singer said after performing Marjorie, an emotional track inspired by her maternal grandmother Marjorie Finlay, who died in 2003.

Taylor Swift had told ST in a 2010 interview that her maternal grandfather Robert Finlay moved his family here for a few years while working in an engineering company.

According to a 1968 ST report, her grandmother Marjorie, an opera singer, was chosen to play the part of a peasant girl in a production at the Victoria Theatre.