Taylor Swift confirmed that her Lover track “Cruel Summer” is a single nearly four years after appearing on the 2019 album. The song was an immediate smash hit with fans, but unfortunately never got the single treatment following “ME!”, “You Need To Calm Down”, “Lover” and “The Main” — and now Swifties also know why! “So basically, ‘Cruel Summer’ was on the Lover album. That album came out four years ago. And I just need to let you know something,” she began to fans at the Pittsburgh Eras Tour Show on the weekend.
Taylor Swift announces ‘Cruel Summer’ is now an official single. pic.twitter.com/lRIUaYX3Un
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) June 18, 2023
“‘Cruel Summer,’ that song was my pride and joy on that album. That was my favorite song. And you know, you have conversations before the album comes out and everyone around weighs in on what they think should be singles,” she went on, bringing up the track co-written by Jack Antonoff, and St. Vincent‘s Annie Clark. “I was finally, finally about to have my favorite song become the single off of Lover… and I’m not trying to blame the global pandemic that we had, but that is something that happened that stopped ‘Cruel Summer’ from ever being a single,” Taylor explained. The COVID-19 pandemic forced quarantines well into summer, so it’s understandable why Taylor avoided that plight.
Despite never being an official release, the song — much like Red‘s “All Too Well” — was a fan favorite, with Swifties (and non Swifties) streaming the track regardless. “So what’s happening right now, thanks to you, and honestly, no one understands how this is happening, but you guys have like streamed ‘Cruel Summer’ so much, right now in 2023, that it’s like at the top, it’s rising on the streaming charts so crazy… and my label just decided to make it the next single,” she then declared.
“It’s truly, truly perplexing to me because I just haven’t had something like this happen in my career. So thank you to anyone who has been listening to that song like 500 times a day because that is my favorite one,” Taylor added. The jury is still out on a potential music video, but fans can certainly hope! While she has never confirmed who the track is about, it’s widely believed to be about the summer of 2016 when she briefly dated Tom Hiddleston but had also met now ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn, who she dated for six years.
Although fans didn’t get “Cruel Summer” as a single back in 2020, they DID get an entire surprise album from the star — Folklore, which was released on July 24, 2020. On that album, the GRAMMY winner played with a pop take on folk music, spawning its own iconic tracks like “August”, “the 1”, “cardigan” and “the last great american dynasty.”
Both Lover and Folklore, along with Evermore and latest release Midnights are all getting the full tour treatment with the Eras Tour — Taylor’s first time on the road since 2018’s reputation tour. The star originally had the Lover Fest planned for the summer of 2020 but unfortunately had to cancel due to the pandemic.
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