On a sleek white stage made to look like a 1960s New York penthouse, one of pop music’s biggest exponents Sabrina Carpenter is sitting on the toilet. A few seconds earlier she’d wiped down the seat with a tissue before taking her spot to sing Sharpest Tool, a sweary, country-flecked bop about a hapless man who found God at his ex’s house.
It’s a brilliantly bonkers vista that encapsulates Carpenter’s ability to fuse unfiltered emotional sincerity with a heavy dose of kooky camp. Think peak era Katy Perry mixed with every era Dolly Parton. As one-third of last year’s pop girl summer alongside Charli xcx’s blitzkrieg agit-rave and Chappell Roan’s vampy queer anthems, the 25-year-old American not only dominated the charts – her three UK No 1s from star-making sixth album Short n’ Sweet spent 21 weeks at the top spot in 2024 – but she did it with a refreshing nudge and a wink.
