Taylor Swift’s Cruel Summer Hits So Different Now To When The Eras Tour First Started

Summary

• Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” grew in popularity during The Eras Tour, four years after it was released in July 2019.
• After hitting #1 on the charts in October 2023, “Cruel Summer” is now the most streamed Taylor Swift song on Spotify.
• The energy and crowd reaction during “Cruel Summer” in The Eras Tour movie showcase its newfound success and impact, making it a standout performance in the concert movie.

Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” off her 2019 album Lover hits so much harder in Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert movie now than it did back when The Eras Tour first started. During a hiatus in October 2023, Taylor Swift brought her showstopping Eras Tour concert experience to the big screen by releasing The Eras Tour movie in theaters. After an extended cut VOD release in December, the concert movie is finally available to stream as Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version) on Disney+, including four previously cut songs and four bonus acoustic songs.

Including these new additions, there is a total of 48 songs in Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version). Of these 48, there are plenty of Taylor Swift songs that are even better in The Eras Tour movie, but one song in particular packs a lot more of a punch now. Watching Swift perform the song “Cruel Summer” from the Lover era in The Eras Tour movie is an elevated experience thanks to the Lover track’s subsequent boost in popularity.

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version)
is available to stream on Disney+.

Cruel Summer Wasn’t A Huge Hit When The Eras Tour First Started

The Eras Tour started in March 2023.

Back when Swift first embarked on The Eras Tour in March 2023, “Cruel Summer” had never been much of a hit at all. After Lover dropped in July 2019, “Cruel Summer” was not initially released as a single. Although Swifties definitely seemed to prefer “Cruel Summer” over Lover‘s actual singles like “ME!” and “The Man,” it didn’t turn out to be one of Swift’s random album tracks that evolved into a fan-adored phenomenon like “All Too Well.” “Cruel Summer” failed to see much chart success, peaking at No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019 (via Billboard).

By the time The Eras Tour began, it had already been almost four years since “Cruel Summer” came out. Swift had also released three more albums since Lover: folklore in July 2020, evermore in December 2020, and Midnights in October 2022. Fans were still excited to hear songs from Lover on The Eras Tour since Swift had never toured with the album before (her last tour before Eras was the Reputation Stadium Tour in 2018). However, there were so many other, newer songs Swift had never performed at all that Swifties were looking forward to hearing more.

Cruel Summer’s Chart Success Coincided With The Eras Tour Movie

Cruel Summer hit #1 on the charts in October 2023.

It may not have been a collective fan favorite when The Eras Tour began, but there was definitely hype beginning to surround “Cruel Summer” after a few months of live shows. This spike in popularity caused Swift to release “Cruel Summer” as a single three months into the tour on June 13, 2023, almost four years after it first came out. Over the next few months, “Cruel Summer” started to gradually creep back up the charts.

It wasn’t until after the theatrical release of The Eras Tour movie that “Cruel Summer” finally hit No. 1 on the charts. A few weeks after the premiere of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour in theaters on October 13, 2023, “Cruel Summer” claimed the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 28, 2023 (via Billboard). Now, more than a year after The Eras Tour began, “Cruel Summer” has the most streams of any Taylor Swift song on Spotify and is still charting high to this day. Considering it wasn’t even charting at all anymore when Swift started The Eras Tour, this is a pretty impressive turnaround for a pre-2020s track.

Cruel Summer Is A Highlight Of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Movie

The Lover song is one of the concert’s best.

“Cruel Summer” is one of the best performances in the live concert and The Eras Tour movie, even though it’s only the second song on the show’s lengthy set list. After opening with the shortened version of “Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince” as part of the Lover era, Swift launches right into “Cruel Summer.” After the second chorus, she takes a beat to warn the audience that they “have arrived at the very first bridge of the evening.”

Its boost in popularity meant the energy in the crowd during “Cruel Summer” at the filmed L.A. shows was on another level, which translated to the screen in The Eras Tour movie.

Swift then asks anyone who knows the lyrics to the bridge to “prove it,” which is ironic since the bridge ends with one of Swift’s greatest misheard lyrics, “he looks up grinning like a devil.” The powerhouse bridge is definitely the highlight of “Cruel Summer,” but the performance as a whole is one of the most fun and high-energy moments to experience while watching The Eras Tour movie. Had it not been for “Cruel Summer”‘s comeback, though, this may not have been the case.

Even though it wasn’t a massive hit yet when The Eras Tour started, by the time filming for The Eras Tour movie commenced in August 2023, “Cruel Summer” had already been released as a single and was a huge fan favorite. Its boost in popularity meant the energy in the crowd during “Cruel Summer” at the filmed L.A. shows was on another level, which translated to the screen in The Eras Tour movie. Thanks to the Lover track’s newfound success in the summer and fall of 2023, “Cruel Summer” hits so much harder in Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour.

Source: Billboard, Billboard