Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@charlieputh/YouTube/Genius
Topics: Music, Celebrity, Film and TV, Justin Bieber
Katherine Sidnell
Topics: Music, Celebrity, Film and TV, Justin Bieber
Charlie Puth has been heavily criticised over the ‘disturbing’ meaning of his song 'Attention'.
Despite the track being released over five years ago, Puth mentioned the song in a tweet last week which appeared to throw shade at Selena Gomez and fans are not happy.
Though neither has confirmed this, the pair are rumoured to have briefly dated.
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Rumours of a relationship began back in 2016, during the lead-up to the release of their song 'We Don’t Talk Anymore'.
The pair had been teasing the track on Snapchat, with several videos of them singing together in the car.
It wasn’t long after Gomez had split from her former boyfriend Justin Bieber, with speculation about her and Puth soon reaching fever pitch.
This was only exacerbated when they gave a sultry performance of the chart-topping track during Gomez’s tour.
At the time, the Only Murders in the Building actor clarified 'he is MY FRIEND only lol' on Twitter, and she'd later end up getting back together with Bieber before the pair split for good in 2018.
But then in the same year, Puth confessed to Billboard that there was something going on between Selena and him around the time of the song's release, explaining: "I don’t kiss and tell, but the only way a song like that can come across as real is if there’s something else going on behind the scenes.
"And that’s what was happening [with Gomez]. Very short-lived, very small, but very impactful. And it really messed me up."
Then, to muddy the waters further, a source linked to Gomez allegedly denied everything Puth had said, telling E! News: "They have never been anything more than friends."
In 2017, Puth released 'Attention', with many fans assuming the track was about the former Disney star.
In an interview with Genius, the singer would state the song was about a girl who was still ‘heartbroken’ over her ex.
“When I came up with the song, I was in a hotel bed in this really cool room in the Philippines,” he told the music site.
“I was thinking about the time I was in that hotel room, and she was literally crying to me about how mistreated she was by her ex and had me thinking I was the guy who could fix her.”
He implied that he’d often be invited to hotels by the unnamed woman and was frustrated when the relationship didn’t progress as he wanted it to.
“I’d be like, Yes, I’m gonna get it in! And then nothing would happen - which is totally fine, but after like the fifth time of that happening, I knew what she was doing,” Puth said.
With Selena in the midst of her on-again off-again relationship with Bieber at the time, some fans were convinced the song was about Gomez.
Then on Saturday, Pugh appeared to throw fuel on the fire when he tweeted: "Attention is what you think it's about." He then promptly deleted the tweet.
Former fans have reacted angrily to how they feel the song is about expecting sex from a woman, particularly after Puth's shady comment last week.
Taking to Twitter, one user angrily wrote: “Charlie Puth is the perfect example of how most men act when a woman denies them access to her body.”
Others quickly followed, with another adding: “So it’s about a girl not giving you her body and taking things slow and you getting increasingly frustrated about it.”
A third said: "Ew I feel gross having even listened to that song."
UNILAD has contacted Selena Gomez and Charlie Puth's representatives for a comment.