Charlie Puth/Gabby Barrett duet “I Hope” examines cheating from both sides

Warner NashvilleGabby Barrett, who came in third on ABC’s first season of American Idol, is now a country star who scored a no. 1 country hit with her anthem for all the scorned woman out there: “I Hope.”  The newer remix of “I Hope” is a duet with Charlie Puth — thanks to the magic of social media.

Gabby wrote “I Hope” from the perspective of a woman who sounds like she’s about to wish her ex well with his new love — but then ends up saying she hopes that new girl cheats on him, the way he cheated on Gabby. Turns out Charlie was a big fan of the original song, so he reached out to her on Instagram.

“He had originally posted about the song, saying that he loved it,” Gabby explains. “And he messaged me later and said that he wanted to remix it and be on it. And so our teams kind of just collabed together — and now we have an awesome feature on a pretty cool song! So we’re excited about it.”

One reason Gabby’s excited is that adding a male point of view to the song makes it more relatable to both sexes.

“I definitely think with Charlie being on this track, it changes the perspective of the song,” she explains. “Because when I wrote it, I was just writing from a woman’s kind of perspective. And so with him being on it, it kind of shows a men’s perspective too, that both sides get cheated on and it’s not just a one-sided thing.”

“So he’s gonna be kind of talking to the guys,” she notes. “And I’m talking to the girls.”

You can find the original version of “I Hope” and the remix with Charlie on Gabby’s debut album Goldmine.

By Andrea Dresdale
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