Charlie Puth Says It’s Thanks To Taylor Swift That He Gained Confidence And Releases New Single “Hero”

Charlie Puth has found new confidence and inspiration, thanks in part to Taylor Swift. The 32-year-old artist shared a heartfelt post on Instagram on Tuesday, May 21, announcing his new single Hero and how the pop megastar influenced him to release it.

“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 wrote in the caption of the post which featured a photo of himself lounging in a green chair next to some roses. 

“It’s one of the hardest songs I’ve ever had to write, but I wrote it in hopes that you’ve gone through something similar in your life, and that it can fill in the BLANK for you like it did for me,” he added.

Expressing his excitement for his upcoming album, Charlie continued, “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. I’ve never put out a song like this before- 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.”

He concluded the post by announcing the release date: “HERO is yours on May 24th and this is the single artwork. Thank you to all of my fans- you’ll never know how much you mean to me….”

Charlie has been vocal about Taylor’s influence on him. On April 28, he reshared her post about her “overwhelmed” reaction to the success of her new album, The Tortured Poets Department, where she name-checks Charlie in the title track, singing that she and a former lover “declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist.” 

He reposted the sixth slide in Taylor’s carousel post, which included behind-the-scenes photos of her working on the record and her reaction.

On Friday, May 3, Charlie teased his new song on TikTok, just days after sharing his response to Taylor. “These last couple weeks have been really crazy for obvious reasons, but I wanted to share something with you,” he wrote over a clip of himself singing along to his new song.

“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,” Charlie explained, concluding, “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.”