"Cruel" is the debut and winner's single by season five winner of ''

The Voice Australia ''The Voice'' is an Australian singing competition television series. It premiered on the Nine Network on 14 April 2012, before moving to the Seven Network in 2021. Based on the original ''The Voice of Holland'', and part of ''The Voice '' ...

'',

Alfie Arcuri Alfie Arcuri is an Australian singer-songwriter best known for winning the fifth season of ''The Voice Australia'' in 2016. He signed with Universal Music Australia. His debut studio album ''Zenith'' was released in July 2016 and peaked at numb ...

. It was released digitally immediately after he was announced the winner on 10 July 2016, as the

lead single A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. Release s ...

from his debut studio album ''

Zenith The zenith (, ) is an imaginary point directly "above" a particular location, on the celestial sphere. "Above" means in the vertical direction (plumb line) opposite to the gravity direction at that location (nadir). The zenith is the "highest" ...

''. The song peaked at number 89 on the

ARIA Singles Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

, selling 1,458 in its first week, becoming the show's worst performing winner's single to date. Lynnette Guzman from Australian Network News believes "music insiders considered the likely mismatch of Arcuri's singing style with the pop song as the problem." The music video was released on 18 August 2016.

Reception

David Knox from ''TV Tonight'' questioned "Who on earth decided Alfie Arcuri should be releasing an up-tempo single "Cruel" as his first single?...with viewers voted him through on the back of

Sam Smith Samuel Frederick Smith (born 19 May 1992) is an English singer and songwriter. After rising to prominence in October 2012 by featuring on Disclosure's breakthrough single "Latch", which peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart, they ...

-style ballads for much of the season", calling Arcuri "a fine vocalist". Paul Cashmere from ''Noise11'' felt that the song "was a complete disaster and makes a mockery of a show promoted to be about music".

Charts

"Cruel" debuted on the

at number 89 with 1,458 sales. In its second week, the song fell to number 298 with 482 sales.

References

{{authority control 2016 songs 2016 debut singles Alfie Arcuri songs Universal Records singles Songs written by James Abrahart Songs written by Lindy Robbins Songs written by Eskeerdo Songs written by J. R. Rotem Songs written by Sermstyle