Taylor Swift continues to defy the rules in the music industry alongside the Swifties as “Cruel Summer” from her Lover album hits the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The song was originally released in 2019 alongside the rest of the Lover album. Although Swift had intended for the song to be a single in 2020, the pandemic forced plans to change. As Swift embarked on The Eras Tour, “Cruel Summer” picked up steam again and has now achieved several rare feats.
With “Cruel Summer” hitting No. 1, Swift became the first female artist to score ten No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and ten No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200. “Cruel Summer” also gave Swift the longest run for a female soloist from a Hot 100 debut to No. 1, excluding holiday songs, climbing to the top spot after four years and two months.
Another accomplishment for the track is that it’s the longest climb for a non-holiday female track from its release date and the second longest climb for a non-holiday song in the Soundscan era from its release date.
“Cruel Summer” is also the first song from Swift’s Lover album to land at the top of the charts. Other singles from the Lover era like “You Need To Calm Down” and “ME!” peaked at No. 2.
To celebrate “Cruel Summer” hitting No. 1, Swift and co-producer and co-songwriter Jack Antonoff took to Instagram to share a special message.
“A song from five f***ing years ago … a song that we said was the best song but we thought, ‘Oh, you know what, this was our secret best song.’ That’s what we thought,” Antonoff said.
Swift took over and added, “We just wanted to say thank you so much for making ‘Cool Summer’ a Hot 100 No. 1 and it’s not even the summer anymore. It’s deep fall, I’m wearing a sweater. We love you guys.”
