Released as the followup single to smash lead "Roar" of the iconic Prism era.

 

It was teased as a wedding classic and Katy's favorite track of the album

 

Despite being a 2nd single, Dark Horse was doubling the sales of Uncondtionally during its single run, and struggled to enter top 10 of Pop Radio while Dark Horse entered Pop Radio with unsolicited airplay.

 

It eventually peaked at #14 on the Hot 100 - becoming Katy's first single to miss the top 10 in almost 5 years since "Thinking of You" and ruined her streak of 9 consecutive top 3 hits and 10 consecutive top 10 hits.

 

It currently has over 500M streams on Spotify and 600M+ YouTube videos and is certified 2x Platinum

 

Looking back, did it really deserve to underperform?

 

 

 

An absolute bop 

 

The video is stunning 

 

she rarely gets one from me but this is 10/10

Her top 3 song and best ballad 

I can never watch the video in a high enough quality  Someone remaster it in 4K and send it to me.

Also gave us one of her best live performances ever. I’ll never forget waiting WEEKS for them to drop a studio acoustic version that never came. 

 

13 minutes ago, Sadie Saxton said:

I can never watch the video in a high enough quality  Someone remaster it in 4K and send it to me.

Also gave us one of her best live performances ever. I’ll never forget waiting WEEKS for them to drop a studio acoustic version that never came. 

 

The way if they released an Acoustic version, it would pull a "The One That Got Away" and become one of the most streamed tracks of the era 

One of my favourite Katy's songs.

And the video is beautiful. 

Top 3 of Katy's discography and such a gorgeous song. I definitely understand why it's her fave song on PRISM.

 

Definitely deserved to perform better, but they were stupid to release this instead of Dark Horse as the second single. They should've just pretended it wasn't a single and then pushed it as single #4 or #5 around late fall.

Mother Perry was in her bag, and this did not deserve to “flop” (in quotes because it was a flop for her standards at the time). She believed in it to the very end and gave it performances instead of just ignoring the tepid reception.
 

Let’s also not forget when the public was choosing Dark Horse over Uncle and she was forced to make it a single:

 

 

Ultimately it had the last laugh and has become a more beloved classic than "Dark Horse", oop.  Katy always knew.

Great song. Deserved much more.

The MV is stunning!

the song and the music video are so beautiful

make me feel very nostalgic 

12 hours ago, blown away said:

Top 3 of Katy's discography and such a gorgeous song. I definitely understand why it's her fave song on PRISM.

 

Definitely deserved to perform better, but they were stupid to release this instead of Dark Horse as the second single. They should've just pretended it wasn't a single and then pushed it as single #4 or #5 around late fall.

This. If they modelled the PRISM era more closely to the TD era and had Uncle in TOTGA's slot, it'd have done a bit better I think:

 

CG/Roar (the explosive lead) - TD/Dark Horse (the GP faves) - FW/Birthday (the seasonal resurgence single) - ET/Legendary Lovers (the foreign flavour) - LFN/Walking on Air (the fun party staple) - TOTGA/Unconditionally (the big ballad)

 

This would have been a killer run and perfect follow-up to TD.

Her best song