Unless you’ve spent the entire summer living under a rock (and honestly, given the amount of rain, who could really blame you) it’s likely that you will have encountered Sabrina Carpenter’s two huge pop anthems – the caffeine-hit that is Espresso, and its self-referential country-pop follow-up Please Please Please – blaring out at full volume.
The star’s record-smashing chart stint, which saw the two songs occupying the UK charts’ number one and two spots for three weeks running, has been inescapable, and now Carpenter has followed it up with her hotly-awaited new album Short n' Sweet.
A mix of country-pop, floaty, Ariana Grande-esque Rn’B, and paired-back ballads, Short n' Sweet references Carpenter’s current partner, actor Barry Keoghan, on the mischievous ode to lust Bed Chem (”Who's the cute boy with the white jacket and the thick accent?”).
But fans have also noticed that many of the lyrics seem to nod to another past relationship: Carpenter’s rumoured romantic link-up with fellow pop star Shawn Mendes, right before he rekindled things with Camila Cabello.
Speculation about Carpenter and Mendes began in early 2023, when the gossip site DeuxMoi reported the pair had been spotted on a date. Over the next month, they went to a lot of the same parties, though didn’t pose for photos together, and staggered their exits. In March a source told Entertainment Tonight that they were dating, but keeping things “low-key”.
Then, Coachella 2023 rolled around in mid-April where Mendes was spotted with his ex Camila Cabello. The two of them were pictured kissing at a bar, and got back together, though they ultimately broke up a second time in June. On the Call Me Daddy podcast, Cabello explained that they decided to give things another go because she’s “kind of impulsive”. “It is what it is. It was a fun time; it was a fun moment.” Carpenter also seems to nod to this time on Short n’ Sweet.
Largely produced by pop heavyweight Jack Antonoff – who fronts Bleachers, and has collaborated with the likes of Taylor Swift, Lorde, and Lana Del Rey –Carpenter has described Short n’ Sweet as her “sophomore album” following her debut with Island Records two years ago. But actually, it's her sixth album, fully embracing the poppier, more tongue-in-cheek sound she first began exploring with 2022’s Emails I Can't Send.
So, what’s Sabrina Carpenter’s story, and just how has she risen to become one of 2024’s most sought after pop stars? Pour yourself an espresso and buckle up…
The Disney Years
Born in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, Sabrina Carpenter started young, entering Miley Cyrus’ talent contest The Next Miley Cyrus Project when she was just nine years old, and sharing her covers of Christina Aguilera’s Beautiful and Adele’s Set Fire to the Rain on YouTube. In a surreal turn of events in years to come, Adele would end up declaring that Espresso (particularly its lyric: “I’m working late, ‘cos I’m a singer”) was “my jam!”
But long before that, Carpenter’s first step into the spotlight was as a child actor – after landing her first ever part in the grisly crime drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, she was scooped up by the Disney Channel, and starred as Maya Hart in their comedy series Girl Meets World. She and her co-star Rowan Blanchard sang the show’s saccharine, country-pop theme tune Take On The World, leading to a five-album record deal with Disney for Carpenter.
As well as appearing in various other Disney shows, she began putting out a steady stream of albums in vaguely the same musical vein: Eyes Wide Open and Evolution, drew from a similar, folk-influenced pop sound, while Singular: Act I and Singular: Act II embraced a broader range of influences with quite uneven results. They failed to really bother the charts, but her final Disney release – Act II – was her best yet by a mile thanks to breezy pop cuts like In My Bed and the vulnerable highlight Exhale. “Listen to the labels, listen to the man, try to keep a sense of knowing who I am,” she sang on the latter, “I try to be an angel but I don't think I can, think I'm reaching my limits”.
The major label graduate
Fast forward to 2021, and Carpenter was free of her Disney deal, and signed to Universal instead. In the meantime, fellow Disney graduate Olivia Rodrigo had released her own debut single Driver’s Licence, which referenced jealousy around a recent break-up. “And you're probably with that blonde girl who always made me doubt,” sang Rodrigo. “She's so much older than me, she's everything I'm insecure about.” Fans soon put two and two together; Carpenter is four years older, and had previously been linked to Rodrigo’s co-star Joshua Bassett.
A few weeks later, Carpenter appeared to reply with her own song Skin: "Maybe you didn't mean it, maybe blonde was the only rhyme," she sang.
Then, the following year Carpenter released Emails I Can’t Send, which welcomed in a new era bursting with the kitschiness and personality that felt missing before. From the bright, playful horns of Read Your Mind to Vicious’ country guitars, to deluxe edition hit Feather, it was her best yet, and charted at number 23 in the US. By 2023, she had been booked to open for Taylor Swift on a number of Eras Tour shows in Latin American, Australia and Singapore: a real full circle moment after Carpenter’s first ever YouTube upload was a cover of Swift’s Picture to Burn. Carpenter announced the support slot by reposting one of her own old social media posts from 2010. Iconic.
trying to process this but alas i shant
— Sabrina Carpenter (@SabrinaAnnLynn) June 2, 2023
CANT WAIT TO JOIN THE ERAS TOUR IN LATIN AMERICA
thank u @taylorswift13 u the 1 :’)
this is the dreamiest dream come true pic.twitter.com/Bx55HL0ROt
Her big breakthrough
Carpenter’s biggest breakthrough moment yet came in 2024 with the release of the Italo disco and reggae influenced pop bop Espresso. Endlessly quotable and a breath of fresh air that tapped into pop’s ongoing nu-disco obsession, it entered the UK Charts at number six before racing towards the top spot: it was the country’s number one single for five weeks, and hovered between there and number two right through to the end of June.
In May, at the Met Gala, Carpenter and actor Barry Keoghan went public with their relationship by attending the event together, and in June he starred in her music video for Please Please Please. The country pop single also steamed right up to number one, and at one point both singles were occupying the top two spots of the chart. By now, Carpenter was one of the biggest pop stars of 2024.
And now, with new album Short n’ Sweet, she’s revisiting a past relationship instead: her rumoured fling with Shawn Mendes, shortly before he rekindled with his ex Camila Cabello.
On Short n’ Sweet, meanwhile, Carpenter alludes to the idea of two relationships with emotional crossover. “Last week, you didn't have any doubts,” she sings on Coincidence. “This week, you're holding space for her tongue in your mouth.” By the bridge, she’s even more cutting: “What a surprise, your phone just died. Your car drove itself from L.A. to her thighs.”
New single Taste takes a more playful approach: “I heard you're back together and if that's true, you'll just have to taste me when he's kissin' you,” she quips.
And on Dumb & Poetic, fans are already speculating that she’s making fun of Mendes, who recently spoke about dabbling with psychedelic drugs at a recent intimate album playback in London. “I promise the mushrooms aren't changing your life,” she sings. “Well, you crashed the car and abandoned the wreckage, f**k with my head like it's some kind of fetish.”
Ouch!
