Taylor Swift will release her song Cruel Summer as a single four years after it appeared on the 2019 album Lover.
The Shake It Off singer announced Cruel Summer as her next single as she performed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania over the weekend, with her explaining to the crowd that the Covid-19 pandemic scuppered her plan to release it as a single in 2020.
"Cruel Summer - that song was my pride and joy on that album. That was my favourite song," she said, reports Daily Mail. "You have conversations before the album comes out and everyone around weighs in on what they think should be singles and I was finally about to have my favourite song become the single off of Lover...
"And I'm not trying to blame the global pandemic that we had, but that is something that happened that stopped Cruel Summer from ever being a single."
Taylor also thanked her fans for making the album track so popular on streaming services that she could justify releasing it as a single four years later.
"So what's happening right now - thanks to you - and honestly, no one understands how this is happening, but you guys have, like, streamed Cruel Summer so much right now in 2023 that it's, like, at the top," Taylor gushed. "It's rising on the streaming charts so crazy."
She added, "And my label just decided to make it the next single... It's truly, truly perplexing to me because I just haven't had something like this happen in my career."
Lover previously spawned the singles Me!, You Need to Calm Down, Lover, and The Man.