Taylor Swift declared on The Tortured Poets Department that Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist, and now, the 32-year-old musician is stepping up to the plate.
On Tuesday (May 21), Puth revealed plans to release a new single titled “Hero” and explained in an Instagram post that the decision was inspired by the 34-year-old pop star’s shout-out. “I’ve never put out a song like this before,” he wrote. “It’s very different for me, but I want to thank @taylorswift for letting me know musically that I just couldn’t keep this on my hard drive any longer.”
The “Attention” singer also shared the single’s cover art, a warm-hued photo of him lounging in a rose garden. “My new song HERO is about when you see someone you love hurting themselves, ruining the things in their life that are good, but you just can’t save them,” he added. “I’m very excited to share my next album with you, especially this song because it’s a great representation of what’s to come. HERO is yours on May 24th.
The announcement comes just over a month after Swift’s Billboard 200-topping Tortured Poets arrived, featuring the lyric, “We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist,” on its title track. A couple weeks later, the “See You Again” musician teased “Hero” on TikTok, writing, “These last couple weeks have been really crazy for obvious reasons, but I wanted to share something with you.”
“Sometimes I get a little nervous being overly honest in my music which is why this was sitting on my hard drive for awhile,” Puth added at the time. “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.”
“Hero” will follow Puth’s recent singles “Lose My Breath” with Stray Kids, “Lipstick” and “That’s Not How This Works” with Dan + Shay and Sabrina Carpenter. He hasn’t released an album since 2022’s Charlie, which peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200.
With Tortured Poets, Swift surpassed her own personal best first-week sales numbers with 2.61 million equivalent album units. The project has also broken numerous records — including first-week vinyl sales and biggest streaming debut — and recently made the 14-time Grammy winner the first artist to ever simultaneously occupy the top 14 spots of the Billboard Hot 100.
See Puth’s thank-you message to Swift below.
