There’s no doubt about it: Charlie Puth is one of the best (and perfectly pitched!) songwriters ever. From his debut single “One Call Away” in 2015 to “Attention” in 2017 and “Left and Right” featuring Jung Kook in 2022 — the guy knows how to make a hit. His musical growth, as well as his transformation throughout the years, is also quite something.
The New Jersey native originally began his career as a songwriter and music producer, writing and producing songs for big names including Stevie Wonder, Jason Derulo, and Trey Songz. That is, until writing the hook of the song that would soon become one of his breakout hits: Wiz Khalifa‘s “See You Again.”
Charlie flew into L.A. for a writing trip in 2015, after signing a publishing deal with Atlantic Records. At the same time, the producers of the Furious 7 movie were searching for a tribute song for Paul Walker, while Charlie finished writing the hook to “See You Again” on his second day of the trip. When the producers selected his song, it was a game-changer for the musician.
“It was the first time I knew I wanted to be artist Charlie, not just producer and songwriter Charlie,” he told InStyle.
Since then, Charlie has produced hit after hit over the years, breaking Billboard records and collaborating with huge musical acts such as Selena Gomez, Meghan Trainor and more. Most recently, he released a full length album called Charlie in October 2022, which he said reflected his feelings over the years from 2020 to 2022.
“On a personal level, I went through a lot of good and bad feelings, and happy and sad feelings, he told Billboard in October 2022. “And it seemed like it was all happening at the same time.”
Charlie was inspired by the complicated feeling of having opposing emotions “at the same time.”
“And I thought to myself, ‘What does happy and sad sound like? I know what it feels like, I know what it looks like. But what does a happy and sad song sound like?’ … And I did that 12 times on this album,” he explained. “So that’s the approach that I took sonically.”
While Charlie has evolved musically since “One Call Away” in 2015, he has also transformed physically! Scroll through the gallery below to see photos of the singer-songwriter over the years.
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