Hello, I’m Charlie Puth.
And right now, we’re gonna break down
some of my most iconic music videos.
[upbeat music]
♪ It’s been a long day without you, my friend ♪
So this is, See You Again.
It came out in 2015 and it’s directed by Marc Klasfeld.
I was actually not supposed to be in this music video.
I remember, they were filming the first day
of the music video.
And I was on my way to the music video
and they were like, Wait, nevermind.
You’re not gonna be singing anymore.
You don’t need to come.
And I turned around and the next day,
they were like, Just kidding. We need you back here.
I wrote this song for Sam Smith, Adele, Eminem, Skylar Grey,
Chris Brown, Lil Wayne.
They all auditioned to sing it.
I was never intended to be the artist on this song.
So I had no idea how to be an artist
at this point in my 22, 23-year old life.
We filmed this at the helipad
right outside of Dodger Stadium.
I know that it was a very nice night.
It was an unusually clear night.
You could see all the downtown skyline.
And it was a super new experience for me
because I just moved to my apartment in LA
like six months prior
so couldn’t believe I was filming a music video
on a helipad near Dodger Stadium.
I had actually never seen a Fast and Furious movie before.
I remember what was going through my mind at the time,
just how cool it was to be part of something
that we all knew was gonna be so big.
♪ You just want attention ♪
♪ You don’t want my heart ♪
Attention, 2017. Directed by a Emil Nava.
Very talented guy.
I actually threw up on this music video
because Samara, who is the actress in this video,
portrayed a crazy ex-girlfriend so well,
I forgot that we were acting.
So that was the first for me, throwing up on a music video.
I was so riddled with anxiety.
But it was a fun music video to film,
especially because nobody on the set
had heard the song before
and it was a very new sound for me at the time.
So I was excited for people to hear it.
It was just a big old party in the Hollywood Hills.
I think I had like Zane’s stylist at the time.
I was just figuring out how to be an artist.
I say that this is the first instance of me
starting to figure out what it’s like to be an artist
but I still look very young
and unsure about a lot of things.
I just Googled like best stylist in Hollywood
and I think, at the time,
he put me in that cool leather jacket
and I felt pretty cool.
♪ I know that dress is karma, perfume regret ♪
I’m assuming am Emil wanted to have a red dress
to have it stand out for that reason.
I mean, red being the attention-grabbing color.
When we were throwing glassware everywhere,
that was actually this thing called sugar glass
which is highly disintegrating, non-cuttable glass.
Samara was throwing it everywhere
and it actually scared me which…
It just felt so real I guess.
I wrote this video with Emil and this particular scene
just taking a real life instance,
something that actually happened to me,
and I wanted to put it in a music video.
And I guess I was reliving it right then and there
and you kind of see my face, just the shock and terror.
It was very important to the record company at the time
to drive the narrative home that I made this song
because this was the first time
that I had produced a song entirely by myself.
So they had the idea to put a makeshift studio in there.
You’re seeing somebody just figure something out
in this music video.
Although the song bangs to this day. I love this song.
♪ How long has this been going on ♪
This song’s called How Long.
Came out in 2017.
It was the second single on Voicenotes
and I showed the whole world that I really couldn’t dance
and I’m gonna put my larger than normal hand over that
because it… I cringe so much
when I look at that little tidbit.
I just truly have no rhythm all. I can’t look at it.
It’s so bad.
You’re seeing the progression of me figuring things out
and we filmed this after Attention.
And you know, I’m growing my hair out.
I’m feeling myself a little bit more.
I do remember, we filmed it in downtown Los Angeles
and we were filming until about seven o’clock
in the morning.
And an angry neighbor came out and said
Stop playing Charlie Puth music. I’m trying to sleep.
And we were all scratching our heads like,
You’re trying to sleep? It’s 7:00 AM.
You should be waking up realistically for your job
and we’re doing our job right now.
But we got escorted off by the police.
It was a whole…
There’s a lot of drama surrounding my music videos.
The music videos that we’ve recently shot
are the ones that don’t have any drama.
I think… I like this scene actually.
I don’t cringe when I watch this scene.
I’m really intrigued by the art deco architecture
in a lot of these downtown Los Angeles buildings.
The Standard Hotel building,
which I think was an old bank in the fifties especially.
I think this building on South Flower was close to it.
I like the fluorescent lights. I like my little blue suit.
I think the suit is Acne and I always…
I’ve been wearing Acne for a while.
Swedish brand. Really, really good threads.
Everything by them seems to fit me really, really well.
Flying through the air was… interesting.
I’m glad I don’t have to do that every day
’cause I do want to have children.
It was uncomfortable to say the least,
but I’m glad it’s over.
I won’t be writing that
into any future music video treatments.
♪ I lied for you, baby ♪
♪ I’d die for you, baby ♪
Done for Me featuring the wonderful Kehlani.
Directed by RJ Sanchez and Brendan Vaughn.
I still love this song and I always love performing it.
I was just so jazzed
that Kehlani wanted to do a record with me
because I’ve always admired her work.
She’s Bay Area queen and I just love her voice
and was so happy that she lended it to me.
Those are yellow, kind of knockoff Air Forces
made by Margiela.
I still have them in my closet.
They’re a little loud for my taste nowadays.
I went through a small phase
where I wanted my sneaker collection to be extra loud,
especially in its colors.
And I just realized that it’s brought a lot of attention
to me.
So I wear Converse now to kind of blend in.
I’ve always been really enamored with George Michael
and how he was able to produce these songs 100%
and Careless Whisper and using synthesizers
against jazz chords with pop music.
Yeah, there’s a pretty heavy nod to Wham!, an obvious nod.
♪ Your love stays with me day and night ♪
Left and Right.
This just came out, featuring Jung Kook of BTS.
This came out in 2022.
Directed by the fabulous Drew Kirsch.
Very colorful video.
I think we filmed this, Pier 36 in New York.
He’s wearing all pink. I’m wearing all green.
It’s kind of that stark different in colors
is to kind of show the left side and the right side.
It was a very small window of time we had Jung Kook
because he had to make it to Washington, DC for an event.
So we had him for like a day and he was such a trooper.
He was all jet lagged and had just come from South Korea
and this was the first place he went, our music video set.
He doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Korean,
but we were able to communicate seamlessly
through movement and music and melody.
Thanks, Allure.
I hope you enjoyed this music video breakdown.
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