All the Swifties have gathered around the stage: Taylor Swift's "Cruel Summer" has topped Billboard's Hot 100 this week, elevating her to an 'elite' list of artists who have placed ten or more Number Ones on the chart.
Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff celebrate "Cruel Summer" at Number One
Both Swift and Antonoff took to Instagram to thank fans (with Antonoff inserting an NSFW F-bomb in his excitement) for making the Lover track a hit. "We just wanted to say thank you so much for making "Cruel Summer’"a Hot 100 No. 1," an ebullient Taylor exclaimed. "It’s not even summer anymore – it's deep fall! I'm wearing a sweater. We love you guys!"
Swift opens her 44-song Eras Tour setlist with "Cruel Summer," which has increased the pop paean's popularity since she kicked off the tour in March of this year.
Taylor Swift onstage during her 'Eras Tour,' 2023
The song — about a summer romance under intense, painful circumstances — was released as a non-single track in June 2019 and charted only at Number 30. It became a fan favorite and was noted in several year-end lists. Antonoff in his glee revealed in the Instagram video that "This is our secret best song, that's what we thought," he said, adding, "It really means the world."
Taylor Swift - Cruel Summer (Live from Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour)
With "Cruel Summer" safely topline, Taylor has now entered the realm of musicians that have ten or more Number Ones in the Billboard Hot 100 in the rock era. The Beatles have the most — 20 — closely followed by Mariah Carey at 19. One curious factoid is Elvis Presley's absence in this group. He scored seven Number Ones in the Hot 100 era, which launched on Aug. 4, 1958, meaning that some of his classics, such as "Don’t Be Cruel," "Hound Dog" and "Jailhouse Rock," preceded the chart's existence. The Beatles scored their Number Ones between Feb. 1964 and June 1970. Taylor — sharing ten songs on top with Janet Jackson and Stevie Wonder — achieved her hits from Sept. 2012 to Oct. 2023.
Taylor's The Eras Tour will start up again Nov. 9 in Buenos Aries and end Nov. 23 in Toronto. Nine additional US dates were added for 2024. 1989 (Taylor's Version) will drop Oct. 27 and include what Taylor has been defining as '5 From The Vault' tracks that were not originally recorded in 2014.
