Updated on May 3, 2020. Posted on Apr 29, 2020

    Here's Why Taylor Swift Fans Are Convinced She's About To Release "Cruel Summer" As A Single

    The Swiftie detectives are at it again.

    It's officially that time of year again! The Swifties have donned their detective hats, and we have reason to believe Taylor ~might~ be getting ready to release a new single.

    Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images

    You may remember that last year, fans began speculating about a potential seventh album in February, six whole months before Taylor actually released Lover.

    So, when Taylor dropped an unexpected selfie on Instagram this week claiming she ~doesn't have a lot going on at the moment~, it was just the latest in a series of potential hints that have fans convinced she has something in the works.

    Instagram / instagram.com

    Some fans are convinced Taylor is getting ready to release "Cruel Summer" — the second song on Lover's track list, a fan favourite, and an absolute slap — as a single.

    taylor should’ve ended the rep era with getaway car as a single and started the lover era with cruel summer as the lead single because they are the beginning and end of the same song but y’all ain’t ready to have that conversation

    society if cruel summer was the lead single

    Let's face it! It would be appropriate for 2020!

    when we all wanted taylor to release cruel summer as a single, we didn’t mean we wanted an actual cruel summer

    It all began last week, when Taylor shared a video to her Instagram story of Disney star Olivia Rodrigo performing a cover of "Cruel Summer". She loved it!

    📲 IG | Taylor Swift posted @Olivia_Rodrigo’s cover of ‘Cruel Summer’ for @MTV on her Instagram story 💕 “THE TALENT. Love this !!! Thanks for this beautiful performance.”

    She then liked a post on Tumblr that mentioned Olivia's cover as well as the fact that Bill Nye the Science Guy had added "Cruel Summer" to an Apple Music playlist, because he, like the rest of us who want it to be a single, has taste.

    OK! Now that's settled, back to the selfie!

    According to fan @Mereswift98, Taylor shared the selfie on Chinese streaming sites QQ Music and NetEase Cloud, and linked it with — you guessed it — "Cruel Summer".

    📲 | Both Chinese streaming music services QQMusic and NetEaseCloud attached ‘Cruel Summer’ to Taylor Swift’s recent ‘Not a lot going on at the moment’ selfie on social media

    It was also posted at exactly 5:08pm in New York City where Taylor lives. I live in the UK, so for me it says 10:08pm, but I can promise you the difference between EST and GMT is five hours.

    And that's not the only time the numbers 5 and 8 have shown up in the SCU (Swift Cinematic Universe) recently. In the music video for "The Man", which was full of easter eggs, we saw the titular Man getting married "58 years later".

    Republic Records / youtube.com

    As Twitter user @TS7Track3 pointed out, that shot comes literally one second after TikTok star Loren Gray's cameo in the video, where all she does is stand there and roll her eyes.

    Republic Records / youtube.com, Genius / genius.com

    In case you didn't know, Loren calls her fans "angels". She even has a tattoo of angel wings on the back of her neck to commemorate the name. And guess what is a repeated lyric in "Cruel Summer"?

    "Devils roll the dice / Angels roll their eyes."

    That's not the only hint fans have found in the "The Man" video, though. At one point, the Man pees on the wall in the shape of the song's title — but, at the time, some fans thought it could also spell out "THIS MAY".

    Republic Records / youtube.com

    All this has fans convinced Taylor is going to release "Cruel Summer" as a single on 5/8, aka May 8th, aka literally next Friday. And, as we know, singles are usually released on Fridays.

    NBC / giphy.com

    Oh, and of course, 5 + 8 = 13.

    There's also the matter of this purple thing in Taylor's hair, which is a complete mystery to me, but if she releases a music video for "Cruel Summer" that includes anything purple at all, I'm considering it a clue.

    In conclusion, all the clues point to Taylor releasing "Cruel Summer" as a single next Friday, and if she doesn't, I'll just refer you to this Tumblr post she liked essentially calling us all clowns for overanalysing everything she does:

    Bye! Remember to stream "Cruel Summer"! 💗

    Ellie Bate is a celebrity reporter and talent coordinator at BuzzFeed UK and is based in London.

    Contact Ellie Bate at eleanor.bate@buzzfeed.com.

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