Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” Makes Swiftie History as Song Continues to Light Up the Charts

Taylor Swift is breaking records left and right, and many of them consist of her own. Such as the seven-week standing of “Cruel Summer” beating out the six-week record of “Blank Space” in 2014. Currently, “Cruel Summer” is now Swift’s longest-leading hit on the Billboard Radio Songs chart.

In a recent report from Billboard, the outlet mapped out Swift’s eight Radio Songs chart toppers and the weeks they spent on the chart, starting with “Cruel Summer” with seven weeks in 2023, “Blank Space” with six weeks in 2914-15, “Anti-Hero” with five weeks in 2022-23, “Bad Blood” also with five in 2015, “Shake It Off” at four in 2014, “I Knew You Were Trouble” with four in 2013, and both “Wildest Dreams” and “You Belong With Me” at two weeks in 2015 and 2009 respectively.

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Taylor Swift’s Star Keeps Rising

Taylor Swift has been in the fast lane since the rerelease of 1989 (Taylor’s Version), embarking on a multi-leg, international Eras Tour again next year—which has become the first tour to break $1 billion— and not to mention being named TIME’s Person of the Year.

Not only is Swift the first entertainer to hold that title, she’s also the first woman to hold it twice; in 2017 she was named among other “Silence Breakers” speaking out against sexual misconduct in the entertainment industry, joining Ashley Judd, Rose McGowan, Selma Blair, Alyssa Milano, others.

As for “Cruel Summer,” the 2019 hit co-written with Jack Antonoff gained sudden popularity this year that Swift and Antonoff weren’t expecting. In an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last month, Antonoff shared his theories on why the song became so popular four years later.

“I feel like I’m loving where the music business has gone,” he began, “because it just melted down into nothing but what people like. And you could talk your crap about this or that, but, just, the fans are God, what they say goes.” Antonoff’s theory maintains that what the fans say, goes, and there’s nothing to do but just get out of the way when they come through. It was fan interaction which made “Cruel Summer” top the charts so late, and Swift and Antonoff are happy with that fact.

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