Charlie Puth

A clean-cut, pitch-perfect singer discovered and championed by Ellen DeGeneres, Charlie Puth's crowning glory will probably always be "See You Again," his duet with rapper Wiz Khalifa, which became a huge international hit after featuring in the movie Furious 7. A powerful tearjerker, it was included as a tribute to the actor Paul Walker who was killed in a car crash during the making of the movie. The son of a music teacher and writer of commercials, Puth was born Charles Otto Puth Jr. on December 2, 1991, to a Catholic father and Jewish mother and raised in New Jersey. His mother taught him to play piano at the age of 4 and initially studied classical music, but later turned to jazz, joining a jazz ensemble at the Count Basie Theatre Cool School when he was 12. He studied jazz and classical music and majored in music production and engineering at the Berklee College of Music. In 2009, he started his own video-streaming channel and achieved some interest with "These Are My Sexy Shades," going on to release the EP The Otto Tunes in 2010. Ellen DeGeneres saw him performing a cover of Adele's "Someone Like You" with fellow Berklee student Emily Luther, featured them on her TV show, and signed them to her eleveneleven label. Developing his songwriting he was subsequently signed to the Atlantic label and released the catchy single "Marvin Gaye" with guest vocals from Meghan Trainor, topping the charts in the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand. Linking up with rapper Wiz Khalifa, his career scaled new heights following the release of "See You Again" and featured with Meghan Trainor again on the video for her hit "Dear Future Husband." He also worked with Lil Wayne before releasing his debut album Nine Track Mind in 2015, which produced another hit, "One Call Away." In 2017, he had two further hits with "Attention" and "How Long," both forerunners of the release of his new studio effort Voicenotes in 2018. Among its many feats, Voicenotes peaked at Number 4 on both the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart, and was certified gold in the US, Canada, and New Zealand. After scraping most of the material he had written between 2019 and 2021, Charlie Puth took a different approach to songwriting and began sharing his creative process with his fans on social media. Preceded by the single "Light Switch," his third studio full-length Charlie was released in 2022 to great critical acclaim, reaching Number 10 on the Billboard 200 chart.