Starlight 13

Cruel Summer was an album track from 3 albums prior and ended up being the biggest hit from the album, her most streamed song ever and one of the biggest songs globally in 2023 purely off of the hype of the Eras tour... yes a few months after it took off it ended up getting radio support but by that point it was already top 10 in both the UK and US officially, had it not randomly taken off because of the tour it would have never been a single. I never got why so many Taylor fans used to go on and on about how they'll never understand why Cruel Summer wasn't a single (truthfully I think its her most overrated song ever) but I guess I need to eat my words now :lol:

Hope Taste manages the official #1 so she manages 3 #1's from the same album - other than Ariana (thank u next/break up with your gf i'm bored/7 rings), Justin Bieber (sorry/what do you mean/love yourself) and Ed Sheeran (i don't care/beautiful people/take me back to london) I can't think of anybody else who has managed it in the streaming era?! EDIT: actually Lewis Capaldi managed it on his last album didn't he..... although that definitely took some creative accounting on the physicals front on his part lol EDIT: actually Ed has done it twice... and Jess Glynne technically.. just ignore this post LOL

Early predictions have this on track to do 290k-310k first week in the US :o huge

Really enjoying this! Taste and Good Graces are BOPS

I'm going again on Friday! My 4th and final show. Feeling lucky to experience this tour 4 times :wub:

Debuts at #198 on US Spotify and #145 worldwide... tragic

Guess pretty on lock for #1 then :D

Guess remix with Billie confirmed!!!! Out in less than 3 hours :o

Billie & Charli ‘Guess’ remix confirmed on both of their instagrams, out today at 6PM EST so 11pm UK!

Is everyone else also listening to August on repeat today? It’s only right!

Yeah funnily enough I remember this - we got the video about 2/3 weeks after it was sent to radio in the US even though there were clips of the video in the montage she posted the day Midnights was released months prior :lol:

Not really! Cruel Summer and IION were never intended to be singles, they just got pushed to radio because they were doing so well on streaming.. Cruel Summer was an album track from 3 albums ago that randomly took off when the tour started and IION was a vault track which only got pushed to radio because it did so well on streaming (Slut! was actually the song they originally pushed on Spotify on 1989 TV release day but they switched it up a few days later when IION randomly took off). Her last actual studio album rollout had a music video for all 3 singles (Anti-Hero, Lavender Haze, Karma) as well as an additional one for Bejeweled, ICDIWABH is the only single from an official studio album in her whole career that doesn't have a video (Cruel Summer doesn't really count), but who is to say its not coming!

Definitely the right choice for single #2 but I do agree that she’s left it a bit too long - think it could have peaked higher than #8 here had she pushed it and released the video in early June along with the UK tour dates! Either way, very pleased with this as a single! Probably my favourite from the album.

She looks amazing in the video, but the song is awful imo

Friday a friend of mine asked if I wanted to go with her instead of her boyfriend because he wasn't feeling well - they had got tickets last year when they went on sale and paid face value. Literally at 3pm on Friday, I had to get ready and be out of the door within the hour :lol: Then on Saturday night a friend of mine who lives in the US randomly got un-waitlisted by TM for the Sunday show. She gave me her TM login to try and get tickets with her code as she obviously wasn't going to be able to go herself. Went on and on my first attempt I was offered 2 front left standing tickets (obviously face value too as it was direct from TM!), legit nearly died, bought them instantly & just transferred them to my own TM account. I went with the same friend who gave me the ticket on Friday! I'm going again to one of the August Wembley dates too which are the tickets I got with my own code during the Midnights presale last year. Feeling v v v lucky to have been 3 times & be going a 4th in August :wub: (I went to one of the Metlife dates last year too as I was on holiday in NYC at the time)

Well at 3pm on Friday I had zero tickets for the whole weekend, and somehow managed to end up front right standing on Friday and front left standing on Sunday, both face value!!!!!!!! Had the most incredible weekend and feeling so lucky! Nearly fell to the floor when she sang Come Back Be Here on Friday, my favourite Taylor song of all time. Genuinely still can't believe it :w00t: the fact she's only ever performed that song live 3 times in 12 years and I was lucky enough to be there on Friday, it was fate!!!!! Also was over the moon with OOTW and Clean last night! However really annoyed me that last night the Wembley Stadium website stated Taylor would be on at 7pm instead of 7:30pm due to the train times... tell me why me and my friend are walking up to the stadium at 6:30pm and she is ALREADY ON CRUEL SUMMER?! We missed the first 3 songs, was fuming haha! She literally came on 35 mins early!

The point of the topic though is why does she feel inclined to release so many with 1 minor change? Yes a label will want sell as many records as possible, we all know that - but the point of this thread (I think, anyway) is to point out the fact that Taylor seems to purposely be doing it now to block others from getting to #1. The second somebody else is predicted to hit #1 over her, they'll pull out a few more variants from somewhere to make sure Taylor remains at #1 She did it with Billie and she's now done it with Charli. The 3 new versions were UK only, the one place Charli was due to hit #1 over her, and they specifically stated they were only available for 6 hours on Thursday evening... conveniently on the day we found out Charli was in the lead for #1. I don't know how anybody can argue that that isn't clear evidence that her/her team were trying to maintain the #1 spot, regardless of who they were blocking. If it was only about the sales overall then they would have released them everywhere, but no, it was SPECIFICALLY the UK and you HAD to buy it by midnight the day the chart tracking stopped... It's giving mean girl/loser energy, I'm sorry, it just is. I've loved her forever but I can't defend her here. The "nobody is forcing you to buy it!!!" argument I can understand to an extent but it doesn't change the fact that Taylor/her team are clearly trying to do everything in their power to keep Taylor at #1 in the UK/US and are purposely going out of their way to block anybody who threatens that

As a long standing Taylor stan, I find the endless variants & endless digital releases with ONE more "voice memo" on them embarrassingly greedy. I can't even defend it anymore. Everyone releases numerous vinyl variants etc, that's just standard nowadays, but this is a whole new level. She's my favourite artist and has been for 10+ years, but this is becoming ridiculous now. Take one look at the comments on taylornation's instagram where they announce a new variant and 95% of the comments are fans complaining about how they're sick of these variants etc. I appreciate nobody is forcing anybody to buy them, but the fact her team sit there and think they can keep doing this to manipulate the chart in any which way they want, especially when artists release new work, is pathetic. She literally has EVERYTHING. She is the BIGGEST ARTIST IN THE WORLD. Nobody comes close to her level of power, not even Beyonce (not pitting two women together, but just saying because I think we can all collectively agree Beyonce is the only other artist who people would consider to be close to Taylor's level of celebrity). She has broken every record imaginable and its unlikely we'll see an another artist have this level of fame and reach again in this generation. Why is 1 more week at #1 for her more important than an artist like Charli getting ONE shot at #1 on her debut week for her most critically acclaimed album yet, and the most critically acclaimed album of the year so far? Again, love Taylor, but if she continues like this I fear we're going to have a repeat of the 2016 hate train saga. If its putting a sour taste in my mouth, a fan of over a decade who has spent thousands on her and going to her shows etc, then you know something is wrong.

That new Raye song is one of the best songs I’ve heard in a LONG time. Easily the song of the year so far for me. It’s not very commercial sounding though so can’t see it taking off, but wow, what a song!

If Post and Morgan cross 1M again tomorrow, at least 1/4 of them are from me. Cannot stop listening. Haven't been obsessed with a song like this in a long time. I'm not even a Morgan Wallen fan :lol:

Wow, huge for Post and Morgan!! Absolutely love the song but didn’t expect those kind of numbers. Song of the summer?

Agreed that Fortnight was a pretty poor first single choice (coming from a Swiftie) so I'm not surprised its not holding up as well as Anti Hero did, release a video for I Can Do It With A Broken Heart now pls hun x Love the Morgan Wallen & Post Malone song :arrr:

According to chartdata its looking to do 55k-65k first week in the US and should debut at either #2 or #3. FN debuted at #4 with 66k (but later peaked at #3), so not too far off tbh. At least if she debuts at #2 it'll be her highest charting album in the US.

For reference, she did 15.8M worldwide. Future Nostalgia debuted with 29.1M worldwide, and both had 11 tracks.

I don't know, I wouldn't say her popularity has been "severely overly exaggerated". She had the biggest selling song of the year in 2021 with Levitating in the US, that's pretty massive for a UK artist. Don't Start Now was also the 4th biggest selling song of the year there the year prior. It's pretty rare for a UK artist to have the success she's had worldwide, the Future Nostalgia tour was a sellout worldwide too. She definitely deserves her flowers, she's done very well. I do think it's fair to say though that based on first day numbers this is a massive underperformance. 15.8M streams worldwide is pretty shocking for an artist of her level. Future Nostalgia did 29.1M, so almost double, with the same number of tracks. :(