Charles Otto Puth Jr. was born December 2, 1991. His initial exposure came through the viral success of his song videos uploaded to YouTube. Puth initially signed with the record label Eleven Eleven after performing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, while songwriting and producing for other artists. With primary intent on a solo career, Atlantic Records and Artist Partner Group eventually sought him, and he released his debut single, “Marvin Gaye” (featuring Meghan Trainor), in 2015. He was then featured on the single “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa. The song peaked at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 for 12 non-consecutive weeks, was certified 11× Platinum by the RIAA, and earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song nomination, along with three nominations at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, including one for Song of the Year. Puth‘s debut studio album, Nine Track Mind, was released in 2016 to moderate commercial success and generally negative critical reception. The album included the single “We Don’t Talk Anymore” featuring Selena Gomez, which peaked at number 9 on the Hot 100. In 2017 he released two songs, “Attention” and “How Long”; they were certified 4× and 2× Platinum, respectively. Both were included on his second studio album, Voicenotes (2018), which was generally received positively by critics. Puth released “I Warned Myself”, “Mother”, and “Cheating on You” in 2019. After deciding not to put these songs on his next album and scrapping what other ones he had written for it in 2020, he released the non-album singles “Girlfriend” and “Hard on Yourself”. Two years later, he released his third studio album, Charlie; it spawned the singles “Light Switch”, “That’s Hilarious”, “Left and Right” featuring Jungkook, “Smells Like Me”, “I Don’t Think That I Like Her”, and “Charlie be Quiet!”. He continues to be a favorite among our music and program directors here at New Music Weekly.
