Charlie Puth subtly responds to Taylor Swift shout-out on The Tortured Poets Department
Pop singer and producer Charlie Puth appeared to react to Taylor Swift naming him in the title track for her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department.
One of the most talked-about lyrics on the pop star’s record-breaking 11th album is when she sings: “You smoked, then ate seven bars of chocolate/ We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist/ I scratch your head, you fall asleep/ Like a tattooed golden retriever.”
The mention of Puth sent Swifties (Swift fans) flocking to his social media to congratulate him for being mentioned on their favourite artist’s new album.
Puth, known for hits including “We Don’t Talk Anymore” and “Attention”, has since reposted a picture from Swift’s Instagram showing her sitting with headphones over her ears. The words, “The Tortured Poets Department” are written over the top in black marker pen.
The track is widely believed to be about Swift’s brief fling with The 1975 frontman Matty Healy. In the song, she pokes fun at her partner’s obsession with using typewriters: “Who uses typewriters anyway?” she sings.
In the same song, she also takes aim at her partner’s lofty artistic aspirations: “You’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith/ This ain’t the Chelsea Hotel, we’re modern idiots.”
Taylor Swift is currently enjoying one of the biggest weeks of her career, as songs from The Tortured Poets Department claimed a record-breaking 14 spots on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The feat surpasses the one she achieved in 2022, when she became the only artist in history to dominate the Hot 100’s entire Top 10 following the release of Midnights.
With her latest album, the 34-year-old has now achieved her 12th No 1 single in the US with “Fortnights”, the lead track from TTPD, with 13 other songs charting from No 2 to No 14.
The album also topped the charts, meaning Swift is now tied with Jay-Z for the most No 1s by a solo artist (14). It sold 2.6 million units within the first fortnight of its release, the highest sales for any album since Adele’s 2015 LP, 25.
Billboard said traditional album sales, which include digital downloads, CDs, vinyl LPs and cassettes accounted for 1.914 million of the 2.61 million sales. This makes Swift’s by far the top-selling album of 2024, ahead of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, which has sold 228,000 units so far.
“2.6 million ARE YOU ACTUALLY SERIOUS??” Swift wrote in response to the news on Instagram. “Thank you for listening, streaming and welcoming Tortured Poets into your life. Feeling completely overwhelmed.”
She continued: “I was already so fired up to get back to the tour but you doing THIS?? 9 May can’t come soon enough.”
Swift’s Eras Tour is scheduled to resume with her first European date in Paris on 9 May, with many fans predicting that she will perform at least one or two tracks from TTPD live for the first time.
