In politics, how much influence can pop stars wield?

Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny and Beyoncé all endorsed the losing side in the U.S. election. Was their power to push followers to vote overblown?

When singer songwriter Chappell Roan told an interviewer that she wasn’t going to endorse either candidate in last week’s U.S. presidential election, in part because of her support for Palestinians, people flooded social media platforms with vicious comments.

One TV talk show host addressed her directly on his show, saying she would be “thrown off the roof” if she were in Gaza. Roan eventually pulled out of performing at major festivals, citing mental health struggles.

In contrast, when Taylor Swift told fans on Instagram in September 2024 that she was endorsing Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and that they should all register to vote, more than 400,000 people clicked on a voter clearinghouse site to do so.

Celebrities can affect elections — whether they’re record-breaking pop stars or YouTubers making makeup tutorials from their bedroom. And with almost two billion people poised to vote this year in over 70 countries — from Ghana to Indonesia — the effect could be long lasting.

During the 2023 Guatemalan general election, presidential candidate Bernardo Arévalo referred to a 2009 Kanye West–Taylor Swift incident in a TikTok video. West had interrupted Swift’s speech for Best Female Video at the VMAs — which was followed by years of degrading and misogynist music videos and secretly-recorded phone calls by West and his then wife, Kim Kardashian, and heartbreaking lyrics from Swift.

The video quickly went viral among young voters and helped Arévalo win the election. Swift has had similar influences everywhere from Canada to Chile to the Philippines.

Swift steps into U.S. politics.

Swift’s endorsement of Harris was an uncommon move for the singer who’s largely leaned left but kept hush-hush on her politics. Harris also enlisted the help of other superstars like Eminem, Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen and Bad Bunny.

Still, Donald Trump won the 5 November election and will become the 47th president of the United States. He will be inaugurated at the U.S. Capitol on 20 January 2025. And he had far fewer endorsements from superstars.

Perhaps the prospect of ending up supporting the losing side of an election had kept many other singers, actors and professional athletes on the political sidelines. And as the definition of celebrities now includes YouTubers and influencers, many of them have taken the same approach.

At first it seemed as if Swift’s endorsement could tip the tide. Swift had reacted to a fake AI-generated video of her endorsing former President Donald Trump for president that started circulating online. Following Swift’s Instagram post endorsing Harris and urging her 284 million followers to register to vote, Vote.org recorded 405,999 people visiting its site via Swift’s Instagram story.

Online coalitions like ‘Swifties for Harris’ — a group of die-hard Taylor Swift fans who felt compelled to take action this election season — even cropped up. By September, they had raised $150,000 for the Harris campaign.

“We’re confident Taylor’s words will have a positive impact and encourage more people to join us in our mission to elect Vice President Harris,” they said in a statement posted to X, after Swift’s official endorsement of Harris.

Roan speaks up but stays out.

Chappell Roan has dominated global music charts and sold out record-breaking festivals, with songs like “Good Luck, Babe” — an unapologetically queer tale about lost love and what could’ve been.

But on the internet, she’s on everyone’s radar for two main reasons: She’s spoken out about the gross breaches of privacy and stalking of  famous people, and she refused to endorse a political candidate in this year’s U.S. election.

In an interview with the Guardian in September, Roan said she did not “feel pressured” to endorse anyone for president. She said there were problems on “both sides.” This prompted the first wave of political backlash against Roan.

“That’s why I can’t endorse,” she said to The Guardian. “That’s why I can’t, like, put my entire name and my entire project behind one [presidential candidate].”

She posted a TikTok trying to clarify, saying she intended to cast a ballot for Vice President Kamala Harris, but would not endorse her. She has shown public support for ending the war in Gaza, including by raising funds at her merchandise table during concerts.

Politics and pop music in South Korea

Unlike in the United States, in South Korea, the home of K-Pop, most celebrities in entertainment don’t comment on the country’s politics. What does that look like? No posts on social media. No comments during interviews. Not wearing certain colors or posing with certain hand gestures or even posing in front of flowers. 

“This is a star-making system, which is not only in Korea but also in many countries,” said Jin Dal Yong, professor of communications at Simon Fraser University. “They must take a hands-off attitude toward [politics] in order to avoid any turmoil.”

Color used to be a clear-cut indicator of ideological views in Korean politics, with blue for conservatism and red for socialism. Now, they represent the colors of certain parties. For example, blue represents the Democratic Party of Korea, bright pink for the United Future Party, on and on.

And the slightest deviation away from these rules, especially during election season when celebrity endorsements could change the entire country’s political landscape, means facing the politicians’ and even the public’s vitriol.

“Korean society is political, and the major two parties are always competing neck-to-neck,” said Jin of Simon Fraser University. “If celebrities side with any particular party or political leader, fans who have different political views verbally attack them. So, the Korean entertainment industry emphasizes neutral or less political stances than other countries.”

Coding politics

Jung Ho-yeon, the extremely popular actress who appeared in the Emmy Award-winning Netflix series “Squid Game” had to delete an Instagram post after she uploaded a picture of a piece of paper with the number “1” printed on it. Many people online interpreted this as support for a particular presidential candidate in 2022.

Entertainer Yu Jae-seok suffered the wrath of the public through ‘netizens’ and the conservative party after wearing a blue baseball cap during the 2018 regional elections. Blue is the color of the Democratic Party of Korea.

Netizens — or ‘citizens of the net’ — are fans who vehemently support or criticize everyone from entertainers to football players to political leaders.

“They used to participate in political rallies, but they also work online,” Jin said. “When they find people who oppose their favorite candidates, they attack them online.”

Swift and other celebrities can affect elections around the world, as happened in Guatemala — whether they endorse or not. But there’s no actual formal mechanism for them to leverage this.

Studying the political affect of celebrity

A recent study from Harvard found civic engagement from a celebrity is just an opportunity waiting to be taken. They found that voters respond better to ‘authentic messaging’ that shows ‘personal passion’. The content doesn’t need to be Oscar-winning short films or Grammy-nominated audiobooks. As long as it aligns with the celebrity’s usual style of content, it may resonate among their audiences.

In South Korea for example, the fandom phenomenon in the Korean cultural industries is robust. Many fans dedicate their time, money and energy to their favorite actors and singers. They buy concert tickets, outdoor advertising boards to celebrate their favorite idols’ birthdays and send goods and food to them. Fans in Korea want to share their close relationship with actors and K-pop idols as well as fans themselves.

The study also found that it’s best to veer away from a one-size-fits all approach. A YouTuber like Nicole Rafiee’s young fan base may be an ideal target for voter registration outreach and reminders.

But when it comes to TV talk show hosts like Stephen Colbert and their older audience, time-intensive volunteer work may be better. Younger audiences may want to buy and wear a pro-democracy T-shirt, but older women may want to buy and wear more expensive and subtle jewelry. Most importantly, the study found that a celebrity’s fan base can help decide which organization to partner with.

Jin agrees. In South Korea, celebrities are helpful in attracting more supporters to political leaders. So, it’s traditional for political leaders to always want to have a couple of celebrities who support them so that general people also support them.

“Due to parasocial relations between fans and celebrities, it is possible for fans to support political leaders if celebrities support any political leader,” he said. “It is certainly possible. Korea is a very political society and there are several elements to decide their voting rights.”

Questions to consider:

1. What was the ‘Swifties for Harris’ coalition and what’s their mission?
2. Why do most celebrities stay silent on political matters in South Korea?
3. What music artists do you like and would you be influenced by their voting choices?

Norma Hilton is an independent journalist covering everything from K-pop to murder-suicides. She has worked in Canada, the United States, Australia, Singapore and Bangladesh.