Against all predictions, Taylor's highly anticipated comeback single "ME!" has failed to debut at #1.
After the widely acclaimed and successful "reputation" era, the hype for Swift's comeback was big enough to ensure her a #1 debut. However, the numbers are in and "ME!" did not perform as expected. In fact, it placed at #3 on its debut week, right behind BLACKPINK's "Kill This Love", and Marina's "You".
This has been a shock to fans and critics alike, since "Kill This Love" is slowly dying and has lost most of its hype, and "You" is the third single from Marina's "Love + Fear" era. One would have expected Taylor's lead single, the first one in two years, to beat both of these to the #1 spot with ease. However, the collaboration wasn't as acclaimed as Taylor's past singles, and it failed to provide a growing element that would probably have ensured its reign over the chart this week.
The single is predicted to have an extremely short chart-run (especially for Taylor's standards), and see little to mild success. Despite the general disappointment towards the single, fans and critics are still hopeful towards the TS7 era, and her chances of scoring yet another smash album are not completely gone yet.
