The lyrics of Charlie Puth and Meghan Trainor’s song “Marvin Gaye” are already pretty steamy, but the pair decided to spice up the action even further with an onstage makeout session when they performed the hit at the American Music Awards. Trainor started off the performance with a beautiful acapella chorus from her song “Like I’m Gonna Lose You.”.
After a shortened version of the soul number, the curtains lifted and Charlie Puth appeared, to much fanfare from the audience. He kicked off his duet with Meghan Trainor, “Marvin Gaye,” picking up the energy in a big way. The live mashup was a big hit with listeners at home, who tuned in 113 million times to the clip.
Puth has said the song is his attempt at writing a hookup song, and true to his word, he jumped off the piano at the end of the song to give Trainor some personal attention. The trainer pulled him in for a kiss, and it wasn’t a TV kiss. The pair really went at it with some full-blown tongue twisting as the audience cheered them on.
Musically, the performance was really brilliant, with some epic vocals from both stars as well as a spanky performance from the band, but no doubt the onstage hookup played a big part in why the video was such a hit online. This didn’t get past fans, who made comments such as “She has such a powerful voice and her songs are great, and you came to see the kiss, didn’t you?” You can check out the studio version of their duet below, which went three times platinum in the US.
You may be wondering, as I certainly was, are Meghan Trainor and Charlie Puth items? It turns out they do have a history together, but they were never a couple. While speaking to US Magazine, Trainor said that when the pair recorded “Marvin Gaye” in the studio, the romantic lyrics inspired something in them.
However, there was a more tangible factor in the liaison as well. “There was booze,” she said. “We made out that night in the studio, and then never again. We were in that moment. The song got to me, the liquor; it was great.”
Puth has also commented on the nature of their relationship many times, and he described them as “best friends” while chatting to Us Weekly right after the American Music Awards appearance. “That’s another person I can relate to, and I ask for advice on everything,” he added. “We’re really great friends, and that’s never going to change.”
He confirmed that the on-stage kiss was actually Trainor’s idea. “That was all planned,” he said. “When I wrote ‘Marvin Gaye,’ the original intention was to make a record that people could just dance to, fall in love with, or have sex with immediately upon hearing it.”