James Charles has dropped his debut single, “Call Me Back”. (Getty/ Jon Kopaloff)
Make-up mogul and YouTube star James Charles is attempting to make a big comeback via a very surprising career path – as a pop star.
The 24-year-old influencer, who rose to fame as a beauty guru in 2016 at the age of just 17, saw his career left in tatters in 2021 following accusations he sent 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 Twitter/X.
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”.
Despite uploading a “Holding Myself Accountable” video, the make-up star is yet to return to his YouTube peak of more than 26 million followers.
On Friday (9 February), the New York-based influencer shared a video to his “first ever song”, entitled “Call Me Back”.
In the emotional, stripped-back piano ballad, Charles laments a lover who has left him and refuses to call him back.
“I’m over love that’s digital, can’t quit staring at my phone, waiting for you to call me back,” he sings in the opening verse.
Then, in the song’s soulful chorus, he wails: “I spent so much time wondering why’d you give up? Why the hell did you leave? What did I do? What the f**k’s wrong with me?”
In the caption for the song’s lyric video, which currently has almost 400,000 views, Charles wrote that he hopes his fans “hear how much this project means” to him, and that they “love it as much” as he does.
However, according to the internet’s gays, there won’t be many people calling him back.
“I speak for everyone when I say that this was NOT needed or asked for,” wrote one social media user, as a second declared that “not a soul will be streaming”.
Others were keen to remind Charles that they haven’t forgotten about the accusations against him, with one person writing of his attempted comeback: “The s**t some influencers get away with is insane.”
Some, however, were actually pleasantly surprised by the ballad, with one fan writing: “I’m sorry bruh I can’t stop listening to that James Charles new song ‘Call Me Back’, sounds sooo f***ing good… Such a Olivia Rodrigo type song.”
Though no one expected Charles to drop his debut single, the venture into music isn’t exactly a surprise, considering he’s been showcasing his vocals on his platforms ever since his rise to fame.
One video of him and musician Anthony Gargiula singing Ariana Grande, Camila Cabello, and Maren Morris songs, uploaded in 2018, has more than 28 million views.