Taylor Swift’s ‘Cruel Summer’ Becomes Single 4 Years After It Was Released – Billboard

Christopher Polk, PMC

Taylor Swift took a minute before singing “Champagne Problems” to take things back a few eras Saturday night (June 17) at Pittsburgh’s Acrisure Stadium.

“The weirdest, most magical thing is what’s going on,” Swift said of the Eras Tour stage. “It hasn’t occurred to me the whole time I’ve been doing this.”

“Cruel Summer” is a song I played a second ago. I don’t know if you remember. We’ve had a blast, right? The one with the bridge where we all screamed,” she reminded fans, referring to the opening lover section of her live set.

“Cruel Summer” was on lover album. This album was released four years ago. And I just want to let you know something: “Cruel Summer,” that song has been my pride and joy on this album,” she said of the track that appears on her 2019 album, a song that also happens to be a longtime fan favorite.

Swift explained, “You have conversations before the album comes out. Everyone’s weighing in on what they think a single should be. I was finally, like, finally It’s about to become my favorite single lover. ”

But before the summer of 2020, which would have been a logical time to drop the cathartic summer anthem, came COVID-19. “I’m not trying to blame the global pandemic on us, but this is something that happened that stopped ‘Cruel Summer’ from being celibate at all,” said Swift.

She continued, “Nobody understands how this happens, but you guys air ‘Cruel Summer’ a lot right. now in 2023that Republic Records, her label, “just decided to make it their next single.” ”

painting News confirmed on Friday that Republic will officially begin promoting “Cruel Summer” to popular radio stations starting Tuesday, June 20, while continuing to promote midnight One “Karma”.

“Cruel Summer” returned to the Billboard Hot 100 dated June 3, after spending two weeks on the chart in September 2019. On June 17 Hot 100, it was ranked No. 47, with 9.6 million official streams, and 2.6 million radio streams. It sold audience impressions and 1,500 downloads in the US between June 2-8, according to Luminate.

“Thank you to anyone who’s been listening to that song like 500 times a day,” Swift joked in Pittsburgh.