Charlie Puth is no “Hero,” as much as he wants to be — and he reflects that feeling on his brand new single that dropped on Friday (May 24).
“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,” the star shared earlier this week, alongside the song’s cover art — a warm-hued photo of him lounging in a rose garden. “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.”
Puth also added that the decision was inspired by Taylor Swift‘s shout-out on The Tortured Poets Department. “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.”
Swift’s Billboard 200-topping Tortured Poets featured the lyric, “We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist,” on its title track. A couple weeks after the album’s release, Puth 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,” he continued. “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.
Listen to Charlie Puth’s “Hero” below.