{"id":598,"date":"2020-08-21T21:04:51","date_gmt":"2020-08-21T21:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/taylorswiftswitzerland.ch\/?page_id=598"},"modified":"2026-10-18T18:43:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T17:43:38","slug":"cruel-summer","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/taylorswiftswitzerland.ch\/index.php\/albums\/lover-album\/lover-songs\/cruel-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"Cruel Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Lover\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAll Lover Songs<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Cruel Summer<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Single | Lover (2019)<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u201cCruel Summer\u201d is the second track on Taylor\u2019s seventh studio album, Lover<\/a><\/em> (2019). Released on August 23, 2019, it was written by Taylor with Jack Antonoff and St. Vincent. The song captures the euphoric highs and painful uncertainty of a secret summer romance, balancing exhilaration with the fear of losing something that has barely begun.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOriginally released as an album track, \u201cCruel Summer\u201d was finally issued as the fifth single from Lover<\/em> in 2023, more than four years later. By then, it had already become one of Taylor\u2019s signature songs, and its belated single release sent it to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100<\/em>, making it her tenth chart-topping single.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\""Cruel\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Background and Release<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTaylor began working on Lover<\/em> during a week in New York in July 2018 while still on the “reputation Stadium Tour<\/a>,” before the album\u2019s main recording sessions began after the tour concluded that November. She approached its creation from a markedly different creative place than its predecessor, reputation <\/a><\/em>(2017). In an interview with Vogue <\/em>in 2019, she described Lover<\/em> as a \u201cnew beginning\u201d and a \u201clove letter to love, in all of its maddening, passionate, exciting, enchanting, horrific, tragic, wonderful glory,\u201d while recalling that she wrote from an \u201copen, free, romantic, whimsical place.\u201d\n

\nTaylor co-wrote \u201cCruel Summer\u201d with Jack Antonoff and St. Vincent (Annie Clark) during a session at New York City\u2019s iconic Electric Lady Studios in 2018. Reflecting on the experience in a 2021 interview with NME<\/em>, St. Vincent described it as relaxed and spontaneous, saying: \u201cGosh, it was really casual. Just some people in a room jammin\u2019.\u201d Taylor and Jack then co-produced the track, adding the finishing touches to what became a breezy, synth-driven pop anthem. In an interview with iHeartRadio<\/em> in 2019, Taylor recalled:\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\u00abJack and Annie [Clark] did the track and a lot of the instrumentation and I did the topline in whatever language that is. A topline is all the notes and the lyrics you hear. So whatever you would sing, that is what I wrote on this. It was just so fun to write this one and I really love this one. Jack and I like to do ranting bridges. Like in 'Out Of The Woods' where the bridge is the biggest moment of the song\u2014we revisited that concept.\u00bb\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTaylor Swift<\/cite>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u201cCruel Summer\u201d was released as the second track on Lover<\/em>, on August 23, 2019, but was initially not selected as a single. Taylor later revealed that it had been her \u201cfavorite song\u201d on the album and was about to be released as a single in 2020 before the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the album campaign. Instead, the song\u2019s original release passed without a single rollout, even as it developed into one of the Lover<\/em>\u2019s most enduring fan favorites.\n

\nFour years later, \u201cCruel Summer\u201d effectively received the single release it had missed. Its prominent placement on “The Eras Tour<\/a>,” where it opened the Lover<\/em> portion of the show, helped send the song viral. The belated single became a phenomenon in its own right, eventually reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100<\/em> in October 2023\u2014four years after Lover<\/em> was released\u2014and becoming Taylor\u2019s tenth chart-topping single.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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