Taylor Swift’s popular track “Cruel Summer”, originally part of her 2019 album Lover, is now set to be championed on American pop radio.
According to @USRadioUpdater, corroborated independently by Billboard, Republic Records is slated to officially start promoting the song to pop radio outlets starting from Tuesday, June 20.
Current data from Mediabase, which provides Luminate with information for Billboard’s airplay charts, indicates that the song is targeting an appearance on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart. The chart for June 24, reflecting airplay data gathered in the tracking week of June 9-15, measures weekly plays across more than 150 mainstream top 40 stations.
Several noteworthy Pop Airplay reporters such as WWPW and WWWQ Atlanta, KHKS Dallas, and KMVQ San Francisco have already been featuring “Cruel Summer”, a song they had aired in 2019.
“Cruel Summer” made a return to the Billboard Hot 100 chart on June 3, after a brief two-week appearance in September 2019 when it peaked at No. 29. As per the Hot 100 chart dated June 17, the song is positioned at No. 47, amassing 9.6 million official streams, 2.6 million radio airplay audience impressions, an increase of 71%, and 1,500 downloads sold in the US during June 2-8, as cited by Luminate.
Swift, who co-wrote “Cruel Summer” with Jack Antonoff and co-produced it with Antonoff and St. Vincent, has seen the song gather pace in recent times. She’s been featuring it in her ongoing Eras Tour, her first opportunity to showcase tracks from Lover, an album that debuted shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic erupted. The concert is structured into 10 segments, each representing one of her nine LPs. The Lover section kickstarts the event, featuring songs such as “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince,” “Cruel Summer,” “The Man,” “You Need to Calm Down,” “Lover,” and “The Archer” in a sequential manner.
The album Lover has been enjoying a resurgence, appearing in the Billboard 200’s top 20 every week since April – a trend that coincides with the launch of the Eras Tour on March 17. Before this, the album’s last notable ranking was in August 2020.
“Cruel Summer” has enjoyed substantial success since its launch, accruing 383.1 million official on-demand streams, 17.8 million airplay audience impressions, and 37,000 sales in the US alone.
