James Charles teases new single at Coachella, and the internet has thoughts
James Charles has attempted to mount a comeback as a pop star in recent months. (Getty)
James Charles has teased his second single whilst in the crowd at Coachella, and the internet has thoughts.
The makeup mogul announced a big comeback in February with a surprising new pop career after facing accusations in 2021 about sending inappropriate messages to a 16-year-old.
Charles, who has almost 24 million subscribers on his YouTube beauty channel, was publicly accused of sending inappropriate photos and messages to a 16-year-old fan.
After the initial incident, 15 men and boys came forward to accuse Charles of sexual misconduct, according to several media reports.
Charles admitted to “flirting” with the fan, who had allegedly told Charles that he was 18 years old, but called accusations of grooming “completely false” in a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter).
On 14 April, the YouTuber posted a video of himself at California festival Coachella appearing to lip-sync to his upcoming track “Can We Just Be Friends”.
Filmed after nightfall at the festival, Charles wore a now zipped-up denim jacket and jeans combo as he sang passionately towards the camera about a lover who ended up friend-zoning him.
“You said I was beautiful, but your emotions were available,” he began in the new single’s chorus. “Yeah the long nights, long flights you were feeling it, and you promised that I wasn’t an experiment.
He continues in the song: “You said you’d never done this before, same breath saying you want this for sure. So I said ‘can we go to bed?’, you said, ‘Can we just be friends?’”
“Omg I can’t believe they played my new song at Coachella,” the James Charles claimed.
Despite Charles’ heartfelt performance in the social media clip, many fans pointed out his “dramatic” facial expressions.
“Fix ur face, ur forcing it to be dramatic,” one person cruelly commented. “You really need to work on those facial expressions my guy,” another echoed.
However, other fans couldn’t help but express their excitement at the upcoming track, including Dance Moms’ Abby Lee Miller. “So happy for you!”, she commented.
Back in February, the New York-based influencer released his “first ever song,” titled “Call Me Back”.
In the emotional, stripped-back piano ballad, Charles laments a lover who has left him and refuses to call him back.
Last year, the People’s Choice award-winner attempted to make a big return to the beauty industry with Painted, his new self-funded make-up line.
In an interview with Cosmopolitan, he said that while he was “disgusted” to learn the age of the initial accuser he had messaged, the other accusations were “completely fake” and regarding conversations that “never even happened”.
