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When photographs of Charlie Puth hanging out with BTS members in Los Angeles started circulating online, the internet did what it always does. It connected dots that may not have needed connecting.
And honestly, can you blame anyone for getting excited?
The evidence looked pretty convincing
Think about what fans were working with. Charlie Puth is photographed with Jungkook playing with a fidget spinner. The two of them are riding bikes together. J-Hope posted a moment with Puth on his Instagram. V is doing the same. Then Puth showing up in BTS's What's Your Love Song promotional campaign — a campaign directly tied to their upcoming album ARIRANG.
Put all of that together and the conclusion seemed obvious. Charlie Puth was on the album. It was just a matter of time before the tracklist confirmed it.
Puth and Jungkook are not strangers either. They collaborated on Left and Right, a song that performed remarkably well globally. They performed together at the 2018 MBC Plus X Genie Music Awards. There is genuine warmth and chemistry between them that goes beyond a casual acquaintance. So the idea of them working together again on a full BTS album felt completely plausible.
Fans were so convinced that when the tracklist dropped and Puth's name was nowhere on the producer or composer credits, the confusion was immediate. Comment sections are filled with questions. Some were baffled. Some were disappointed. One fan put it perfectly, did they just bring him to the studio to entertain Jungkook?
Then Puth cleared it up himself
No cryptic response. No teasing non-answer designed to keep speculation alive. Just a straightforward comment on a clip that was circulating.
He was recording his own album in another room at the same studio. He stopped by to say hello. He loves seeing the guys.
That was it. No feature. No secret collaboration hiding somewhere in the tracklist. Just two sets of musicians working on their own projects in the same building who happen to like each other enough to hang out when the opportunity comes up.
What ARIRANG actually has
BTS spent months living together in a fancy location in Los Angeles while working on the album. During that time they were reportedly around a number of well-known musicians, many of whom did end up on the record.
The tracklist revealed Tyler Spry, who produced Bad Bunny's Grammy-winning DeBí TiRAR MáS FOTos, behind the title track SWIM. Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic and Diplo have both spoken publicly about their involvement.
So the collaborations are real and they are significant. Charlie Puth just is not one of them. At least not this time.
March 20 Is Almost Here
ARIRANG drops on March 20, 2026. The title track is SWIM. The album has 14 tracks and a mystery interlude called No. 29 that nobody has explained yet.
Charlie Puth will presumably be listening from whatever studio he is currently recording his own album in. Maybe in the same building. Maybe not.
Either way, the fidget spinner photos were fun while the speculation lasted.
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