base talk Hot 100 Top 10 Hit "Cheers (Drink to That)" only has 119M streams on Spotify. Why?

[Just a Gay on ATRL]

Back in 2011, the single was pulled from radio and stopped from any future potential to make way for "We Found Love" in September, which turned out to be her biggest hit ever. In hindsight, seems like the right decision, but nonetheless despite everything working against it, Cheers still managed to peak at #7 before all efforts moved to WFL with a lazy tour footage video, no televised performances, and mimimal promotion efforts overall.

 

One would think the song would have a decent amount of streams after its quick climb to the Hot 100 Top 10 almost a year after Loud's release; however, its recurrent streams are objectively abysmal according to Spotify. It's barely passed 100M. The song only received 21K daily streams on the app the other day. Compare this to the prior 2 singles before it: California King Bed (312M) and Man Down (396K), which were considered relative underperformances for Rihanna at the time, but have turned out to far surpass Cheers.

 

Why do you think Cheers is so utterly forgotten? Has it aged poorly? Just got lost in the sands of time under the avalanche of Rihanna's other hits? Do you still like it? Underappreciated or overrated? Share your thoughts below.

 

 

 

[NickARTPOP]

It's funny to look back because I remember hearing California King Bed on the radio all the time and everyone talking about the Man Down video, but not knowing Cheers until I joined forums. 
 

Really though I think it's just not a very interesting song sandwiched between a bunch of all-timers and slipped through the cracks.

[Escape]

Terrible song, that's why.

[Poxy]

A performance with Avril would have cemented its legacy in her catalog 

[Saint James]

over 100m is objectively good though. i think CKB and Man Down pull bigger numbers globally 

[frankvert]

An all-time banger idgaf what anyone has to say. Going by recurrents, it's an extremely underrated gem. You really had to be there 

[Doctor Dick]

They said cheers, drank and left it. 

[Doctor Dick]

On a serious note tho, I don't recall California King Bed and Man Down being seen as underperformances. The album was a hit-after-hit project and those songs were on the radio very often. 

[Graves]

She was in her imperial era, the song rode that hype wave to become a hit but was quickly cannibalized by WFL and left to be forgotten by all but the fans.

 

Great track tho, the sample was p creative of her.

[BrokenMachine]

I never liked that song, I could never finish it when it came out. The Avril sample is the only interesting thing in the song, and yet it sounds bad too 

[GraceRandolph]

I think pop stars who were on a roll collecting hits left and right at that time are bound to have a few hits that get lost in the shuffle. The Edge of Glory felt big in 2011 but because it was coming off much bigger smashes it doesn't have as impressive of a legacy.

[BrokenMachine]

30 minutes ago, Just a Gay on ATRL said:

California King Bed (312M) and Man Down (396K), which were considered relative underperformances for Rihanna at the time

To be fair, both songs were released almost at the same time as singles, while still being cannibalized by S&M. California did what it had to do for a rock power ballad, and Man Down did what it had to do for a reggae song about k*.lling a man, and it was a smash in YouTube anyways

Edited 17 hours ago by BrokenMachine

[Kiss It Better]

aged like milk cause at the time i thought it was such a great song but these days i always skip this song, don't remember when was the last time i played it either

[єѕℓαм]

Well she has too many top 10s to count so it's bound to happen

[Scandalous]

despite its peak was overshadowed by the other Loud singles and of course WFL

it was an obvious single choice at the time but it aged horribly, and considering over half of the Loud album ended up being singles it makes sense this one is the lowest

[IBeMe]

wasnt it a very radio fueled hit? I remember it MAJORLY collapsed the minute they wanted to push We Found Love and pulled the plug on radio. Could be wrong though

[nostalgic]

It was filler, it was reductive. Cute, mais c'est ca

[Digitalism]

The navy here thinks this song is bad but they like the basic ballads on TTT so I wouldn't take their opinions seriously. 

But in all honesty as some people said they released CKB, MD to different markets. Two months later they released Cheers and in one month it was dropped from radio for WFL. The numbers are great for a single that lasted for a month 

Edited 16 hours ago by Digitalism

[sway]

Loud was a massive era. Only Girl (In the World), What's My Name? and S&M were number one hits. Cheers was sandwiched between the mega success of S&M and We Found Love as well as having Fly, Man Down, and California King Bed released near one another. She did not let the songs breathe. She was extremely prolific that year.

 

What she should have done is drop California (the power ballad) and Man Down (reggae pop hit) like she did and promote the latter more, let it take its pace, perform at the VMAs, do the late night performance circuit, drop Fly around October and then drop We Found Love the following year. That would have guaranteed Man Down more success as I still feel it would have easily been a top 10 hit. Can't believe it peaked at only number 51. Cheers peaking at number 7 is wild. In a different universe, those two would be reversed.

 

I didn't have money to download the song at the time (was 12 at the time) so I would use YouTube on my Wii and replayed the video god knows how many times, lol. Still a banger.

Edited 16 hours ago by sway

[nostalgic]

Also what could she have done for a proper music video? Now that I think about it, I can't imagine one. This is a song that screams cheap tour compilation video and at least we got some cute moments from that, all things considered.

[Katamari]

it was mainly a us radio hit and a cute top ten in other countries before WFL overtook it

 

the other two were global hits

Edited 16 hours ago by Katamari

[LustSpell]

It feels like filler and such a distant vibe from the rest of Loud? The entire time I thought the song was part of Rated R or Talk That Talk   The fact it did so well is crazy so late in the album

[bowdown]

drinking culture is declining in gen z hence its subject matter no longer being relevant in this period. her time capsule era

[grAntVRIL]

bcus ms lavigne carried the whole song

Edited 15 hours ago by grAntVRIL
fact

[Jooj]

Its my third favorite song from Loud, only topped by S&M and Man Down 

 

I love the use of the sample and how she perfectly captured the feeling of nostalgia for the song. That being said, it being a single screams US radio filler.

 

I feel like this song was such a non event in big markets such as France and Brazil where all the other Loud singles smashed hard.