Fifteen years after it first broke hearts, Katy Perry’s bittersweet ballad The One That Got Away is having an unexpected second act.
The Teenage Dream deep cut has stormed back into the UK Official Singles Chart Top 40 and hit new streaming peaks worldwide, all thanks to a viral TikTok revival and a little help from Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks.
TikTok Turns Heartbreak Into a Trend
The comeback started with a simple prompt: “Top 5 horror movie moments from your past.”
TikTok users began soundtracking their most nostalgic, gut-punch memories with Perry’s 2011 single, turning The One That Got Away into the unofficial anthem of missed chances and “right person, wrong time” stories. Millions of clips later, the song jumped back onto the charts.
Perry herself joined the wave, posting her own videos — including a playful reaction to ex Josh Groban’s wedding news — which only accelerated the momentum. The trend proved so big that in May 2026 the track re-entered the UK Singles Chart at No. 41 with 11,140 sales, then climbed to No. 30 the next week.
Streaming Milestones and a Director’s Cut
For the first time ever, The One That Got Away cracked Spotify’s Global Top 40, landing at No. 40 with 2.357 million streams, and later peaked at No. 27 with 2.69 million streams. It also hit No. 31 on the Billboard Global 200 — Perry’s highest entry since the chart launched in 2020.
Leaning into the moment, Perry released a director’s cut of the music video on April 21, 2026, after 15 years “in the vault.” Directed by Floria Sigismondi, the extended version adds new scenes and narration from Stevie Nicks, who muses: “The past is like a handful of dust. It filters through your fingers”. Perry told fans she released it because they’d “given it a reason to come out and play”.
Why It’s Hitting Different in 2026
Originally released September 30, 2011 as the sixth and final single from Teenage Dream, the song peaked at No. 18 in the UK back then. But 2026’s streaming landscape rewards emotion and nostalgia.
The early-2010s are having a Gen Z-led revival, and TOTGA’s raw lyrics about regret — “In another life, I would be your girl” — feel tailor-made for late-night reflective scrolls.
The song also debuted on the Billboard Philippines Hot 100 at No. 90 in April 2026, its first-ever appearance on that chart since it launched in July 2024. With over 1.5 billion Spotify streams as of May 2026, it’s now Perry’s ninth most-consumed track in the UK.
The Comeback Context
The timing isn’t random. Perry dropped The Ones That Got The Plays, a new compilation album, in May 2026, which peaked at No. 12 on the UK Albums Chart. While she’s been in headlines for dating former Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, it’s this 15-year-old track proving catalog songs don’t expire — they just wait for the right moment.
As one fan account put it: “Good music doesn’t have an expiration date”. In 2026, The One That Got Away finally got its second chance — and this time, nobody’s letting it slip away.