Swifties were not ready for Taylor Swift to give Charlie Puth a shoutout on her latest album.
On The Tortured Poets Department’s title track, the Grammy winner, 34, cheekily ribs her paramour about his penchant for old-fashioned typewriters and for likening himself to legendary poets.
Swift includes an unexpected name drop early on, singing, “You smoked then ate seven bars of chocolate/ We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist.”
After Swift dropped the album, the internet had some thoughts about the lyric, ranging from confusion to gratitude.
Not Charlie puth trending ???????????????????? #TSTTPD
— Bunny Girl / Paris eras tour (@LucyFai0959) April 19, 2024
“We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist” FACTS
— ????Wildfire, The Tribrid | Commander of Death ???????? (@trihedaburden) April 19, 2024
“We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist” FACTS
— ????Wildfire, The Tribrid | Commander of Death ???????? (@trihedaburden) April 19, 2024
Over the years Puth has been open about his admiration for Swift, often covering her songs during his shows. “This is why she’s such a genius, man,” he said while performing her early hit “Teardrops on My Guitar” in 2021. “These are the chord changes. It’s wonderful. I think it’s wonderful.”
When Swift joined TikTok that same year, the singers also had a cute interaction on the platform after Puth welcomed his “fellow Sag.”
After announcing the upcoming release of The Tortured Poets Department, the pop superstar has been dropping Easter eggs about the album’s content over the last two months.
While performing a tour stop in Melbourne, Swift opened up about how the songwriting process helped her heal during a difficult period in her life.
“It was really a lifeline for me — just the things that I was going through, the things that I was writing about, it kind of reminded me why songwriting actually gets me through my life,” she said. “I’ve never had an album that I needed songwriting more than I needed it on Tortured Poets.”
