Charlie Puth subtly acknowledged Taylor Swift name-dropping him on The Tortured Poets Department album more than a week after the record was released.
Swift, 34, shared an Instagram post on Sunday, April 28, to celebrate the album’s milestones thus far, which includes 2.6 million streams, and Puth, 32, subsequently shared one of the photos via Instagram Stories. The photo shared by the singer showed Swift sitting in the recording studio with the words “The Tortured Poets Department” written in sharpie.
“You smoked then ate seven bars of chocolate / We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist,” Swift sang on “The Tortured Poets Department.”
Fans immediately began speculating that the song was inspired by The 1975’s Matty Healy, who briefly dated Swift following her 2023 split from Joe Alwyn. Healy, 35, previously gave Puth a shout-out in a 2018 tweet, writing, “That Charlie Puth and Boyz II Men track is harrrrrd.” At the time, Puth responded via Twitter, writing, “Thank u matty!”
While name-dropping is “Nothing New” for Swift — her 2010 song “Dear John” calls out her ex John Mayer — TTPD references an unprecedented number of celebrities by name. In the chorus of the title track, she references poets Dylan Thomas and Patti Smith as well as “Lucy” and “Jack,” whom fans are speculating are actually Boygenius’ Lucy Dacus and Swift’s friend and collaborator Jack Antonoff.
