Taylor Swift released eleventh album The Tortured Poets Department this morning, but it is Charlie Puth who is sharing the headlines.
Swift references the singer on the title track of the LP, a song produced by her long-time collaborator, Jack Antonoff, that comes second on the running order.
She sings: “You smoked, and then ate seven bars of chocolate. We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist.”
The Tortured Poets Department was announced by Swift as she picked up her 13th Grammy in February.
The studio record announcement came as a surprise as the 34-year-old had been expected to next release a Taylor’s Version of 2017 album Reputation.
Swift is currently re-recording her earlier works due to a feud with her management.
The singer had been cagey about The Tortured Poets Department, not releasing any singles or videos in support of the album prior to its release on April 19.
Fans have pounced on the release and have been quick to try to interpret some of the meanings of the songs - and the Charlie Puth reference has been an early talking point.
Who is Charlie Puth?
The American singer, 32, has been releasing music since the Meghan Trainor collaboration with Marvin Gaye in 2015, which went to number one in the UK.
He has had two further top 10 hits in Attention and How Long but nothing has matched the success of See You Again. The 2015 hit was a collaboration with Wiz Khalifa and featured as the emotional end credits theme to Furious 7 as a tribute to late actor Paul Walker.
Puth most recently released third album Charlie in 2022 but, despite his soulful R&B winning him fans and a record deal with Atlantic, his later efforts have not matched his earlier sales.
Even so, fans are still throwing things on stage - much to his apparent displeasure.
What did Taylor Swift say about Charlie Puth?
“You smoked, and then ate seven bars of chocolate. We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist,” sings Swift, perhaps in relation to his recent decline.
The internet is void of much gossip of any relationship between the pair, with Swift’s search for love being so legendary that she has even parodied herself.
Swift is currently dating American football player Travis Kelche. Since September, Puth has been engaged to his long-term girlfriend Brooke Sansone - who is also from New Jersey.
Some gossip can be found, though, with Puth collaborating with Selena Gomez on 2016 hit We Don’t Talk Anymore.
The pair were quick to confirm they were just friends but Puth changed his tune a year later, telling Billboard that he had been “messed up” by Gomez despite not sleeping with her.
His 2017 song Attention came with lyrics about being strung along by a teasing woman - and then came a 2023 tweet: “Attention is about what you think it’s about,” he wrote and then later deleted.
It’s hardly rap feud stuff, but Swift and Gomez are said to be good friends.
If giving Puth a shout out on The Tortured Poets Department is seen as a rift brewing between the mates, then fans on Reddit and Twitter will be the first to speculate.
