little like a cop out". Constance Grady of Vox called the song "exhausting", comparing the song unfavorably to "Mean" (2011), another single from Swift. Herald-Tribune named "You Need to Calm Down" as the second best song of 2019. Commercial performance In the United States, "You Need to Calm Down" debuted and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the second top two hit from Lover. Like in the case of lead single "Me!", "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus blocked "You Need to Calm Down" from reaching the top spot on the chart. However, the song garnered several chart records for Swift: With six songs reaching the number-two spot, Swift tied Madonna as the female artist with the most number two hits on the chart, having previously reached the spot with "Me!", "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" (2017), "I Knew You Were Trouble" (2013), "Today Was a Fairytale" (2010) and "You Belong with Me" (2009). The song became Swift's twenty-fourth top 10 hit, which is the fifth-most among female artists in the chart's history, behind Madonna (38), Rihanna (31), Mariah Carey (28) and Janet Jackson (27). The single is also Swift's sixteenth song to debut inside the top 10 of the chart, which is the second most top-ten debuts in the chart's history, only behind Drake, who has 20 top-ten debuts, making Swift the first and only female artist with 16 top-ten debuts in the Hot 100 history. The song debuted at number-one on the Billboard Digital Song Sales charts, selling 79,000 downloads, becoming Swift's record-extending seventeenth number-one hit on that chart. With 12 consecutive weeks spent in the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, "You Need to Calm Down" is Swift's song with the longest duration spent in the top 20 since "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" with Zayn Malik in 2017. The track started at number 33 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart, based on three days of airplay, and has since reached number 9. In Canada, the song entered the Hot AC chart at number 40 based on three days of radio tracking. It debuted at number four on the Canadian Hot 100, becoming the second top five hit from the album in the country. In the United Kingdom, the song debuted at number five on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Swift's thirteenth top 10 in the UK.