Charlie Puth woke up to a big surprise the morning following the release of Taylor Swift’s new “The Tortured Poets Department” album.
Swift’s lyrics have always had a way of setting the internet on fire with references to her personal life and other pop culture homages. In her latest set’s eponymously titled second track, Swift manages to name drop a few writers including Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and two, vastly different American singer-songwriters: Patti Smith and Puth.
“You smoked then ate seven bars of chocolate / We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist,” Swift sings on “The Tortured Poets Department.”
The singer responded a few weeks later online, dropping a new track titled “Hero” and announcing that fans can expect a whole new album from him soon.
“These last couple weeks have been really crazy for obvious reasons, but I wanted to share something with you,” Puth wrote in text over a video of him debuting his new single. “This is a song I wrote about my friend called ‘Hero.’ Sometimes I get a little nervous being overly honest in my music which is why this was sitting on my hard drive for awhile. But I think someone out there was giving me a sign that I needed to release it. So… I declare ‘Hero’ will be out everywhere on May 24th as the first single of my new album. Thank you for your support… you know who you are.”
Puth has been a longtime fan of Swift’s. During a 2022 performance in New York City, Puth covered Swift’s breakthrough hit “Teardrops on My Guitar” and said she was the “queen” of the classic chord progressions “that everybody has used, but she makes it feel different every single time.” Later that same year, in an interview on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” Puth debunked rumors the pair had worked on any music together and said he had only spoken to the superstar once but was open to the idea of collaborating.
Puth’s last full-length LP, “Charlie,” was released in 2022 and peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200. It featured singles like “Light Switch,” “That’s Hilarious,” and “Left and Right,” a collaboration with Jungkook of BTS.
Source Agencies
