Charlie Puth surprises fans with Christmas track

Charlie Puth has surprised fans by dropping a Christmas tune.

The 32-year-old pop star — who recently tied the knot with Brooke Sansone — has spread some early festive cheer with his joyous new yuletide track December 25th, which he penned while working on his new album.

He said in a statement: "I wrote and recorded December 25th completely on a whim a few weeks ago in my studio while working on my new album, and though it sounds absolutely nothing like anything on the album, I figured why not share it for the holidays."

Whether intended or not, the song is very much in the vein of Wham!'s 80s' synth-pop classic Last Christmas.

Meanwhile, in May, Charlie revealed Taylor Swift inspired him to put out "one of the hardest songs" he's ever had to write.

The pop superstar, 34, gave a shout-out to Charlie on the title track on her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, singing: "You smoked then ate seven bars of chocolate / We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist."

And Charlie has revealed being name-dropped by the Grammy winner gave him the courage to share the painful song Hero.

He shared on Instagram: "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.

"It's one of the hardest songs I've ever had to write, but I wrote it in hopes 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.

"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 Taylor Swift for letting me know musically that I just couldn't keep this on my hard drive any longer. Thank you to all of my fans — you'll never know how much you mean to me…"

He had teased: "I think someone out there was giving me a sign that I needed to release it. So… I declare Hero will be out everywhere on May 24 as the first single of my new album. Thank you for your support… you know who you are."

Charlie's new album will be the follow-up to his 2022 self-titled LP Charlie.

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