Charlie Puth may feel turned on like a “Light Switch,” but his latest performance shows him getting downright naughty with an assist from a chart-topping song.
On Thursday (Oct. 27), Puth stopped by the studios of SiriusXM to promote his latest album Charlie, which debuted at No. 10 on last week’s Billboard 200. While at the studio, the singer decided to offer up his own acoustic rendition of “Unholy,” the record-breaking Sam Smith and Kim Petras collab that sits atop this week’s Billboard Hot 100.
Before kicking off his performance, Puth said that he “loves this song,” and that his decision to perform it was pretty spur-of-the-moment. “The first song we’re going to do is something I decided to do on the car ride over here,” he said. “I love the people involved in this song, and I just spoke to Sam this morning and told them that I would be doing this.”
Unlike the clanking, industrial-pop sound of the original, Puth’s version simply paired his voice with an acoustic guitar, as he crooned out the seductive lyrics to the hit track, including Petras’ Balenciaga-flexing verse.
The star also made sure to give fans a couple songs off of his new album, delivering live acoustic renditions of “Loser” and “Left and Right,” this time joining in the fun with some light piano. Speaking about the latter song (his collaboration with BTS’ Jung Kook), the singer said that he had a very specific band in mind while writing it. “I wrote this song thinking about the Beatles, because sometimes their voices would be on one side of the speaker due to the limitations of recording at the time,” he said.
Check out Puth’s cover of “Unholy,” as well as his live renditions of “Loser” and “Left and Right,” below:
