Cruel Summer will be Taylor Swift’s next single. The 33-year-old singer originally planned to release the song in summer 2020. It was on her 2019 album Lover.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic caused her plans to change.
The hitmaker has confirmed that Cruel Summer will finally receive an official release after being “truly perplexed” by the song’s sudden rise to the top of the streaming charts.
On Saturday, June 17, during her Eras show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Swift said: “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. That song was my pride and joy on that album. That was my favourite song.”
She continued, You talk about which songs should be singles before the album comes out, and I was finally about to have my favorite song become the single from Lover. I am not attempting to assign blame for the global pandemic that we experienced, but that is the event that prevented Cruel Summer from ever becoming a single.
Swift then thanked her fans for playing her “favorite” song over and over again.
“You guys have streamed Cruel Summer so much, right now in 2023, that it’s at the top. My label just decided to make it the next single. 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 500 times a day because that is my favourite one.”