A month after Taylor Swift mentioned him in the title track of The Tortured Poets Department, Charlie Puth is openly thanking her for inspiring him to release his latest song.

Two weeks ago, Charlie wrote on Instagram that he was releasing a new song called “Hero” on May 24 as the first single from his next album. He added, “Someone out there was giving me a sign that I needed to release it.” Charlie has explained on Instagram that that someone was Taylor.

“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,” he writes. “It’s one of the hardest songs I’ve ever had to write, but I wrote it hoping that you’ve gone through something similar in your life, and that it can fill in the BLANK for you like it did for me.”

He continues, “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. I’ve never put out a song like this before- 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.”

Multiple fans responded in the comments by quoting the line from “The Tortured Poets Department:” “We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist.” Others begged for Charlie and Taylor to collaborate.

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