In July 2019, Sabrina Carpenter graced the Good Morning America stage and performed “In My Bed” from her fourth full-length album, Singular: Act II. Carpenter’s now-universally beloved stage presence was just as captivating back then. She nailed empowered choreography with precision while delivering the infectiously repeatable hook: “I’m not usually like this / But I’m still, I’m still, I’m still in my bed about it.” The seeds for “Espresso” and “Please Please Please,” her world-beating smashes that catapulted Carpenter from simmering star to bona fide A-list attraction, were evident.
After that performance, Carpenter called me from the car to talk for the cover of tmrw magazine. Then 20 years old, Carpenter spoke with conviction about how comfortable she’d come to be in her self-expression.
She added, “I’ve tried to teach myself that, just because I’m 10 steps ahead of even myself, sometimes, I forget that maybe the world is five steps behind.”
This summer, the world caught up with Carpenter’s years-long vision — beginning with Disney’s Girl Meets World and steadily evolving through five studio albums — to create a combustion reminiscent of pre-streaming monoculture.
Opening for Taylor Swift on The Eras Tour is a reliable launching pad, and Carpenter was positioned to take full advantage of that stage toward the end of last year and beginning of this year. In July 2022, Carpenter had released Emails I Can’t Send, sprouting “Nonsense” and “Feather” as Billboard Hot 100 mainstays. The low-hanging fruit is to cite the “Nonsense” outro, into which Carpenter injects sexually playful and suggestive lyrics during her live sets, as Carpenter successfully shedding of a cookie-cutter image inherent with starting at Disney. Carpenter jokingly acknowledged her explicit humor with Variety earlier this month, saying, “I’m 900 inappropriate jokes away from being a Disney actor, but people still see me that way.”
Anyone who still sees Carpenter that way after “Espresso,” which Carpenter debuted at Coachella 2024, would be in the minority. Since April, millions of people have cemented “That’s that me espresso” into the general public’s lexicon. The inescapable synth-charged earworm peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and, just when it seemed she’d hit apex, “Please Please Please” became her first-career No. 1 on the Hot 100. “Please Please Please,” produced by Jack Antonoff and co-written with Amy Allen, came with a video co-starring Barry Keoghan, her very famous boyfriend.
The 25-year-old triple threat will only heighten her hard-earned pop coronation with Short N’ Sweet, her sixth LP due out on Friday, August 23. Carpenter will simultaneously drop “Taste,” the album’s third single, with a Dave Meyers-directed video co-starring Jenna Ortega that reiterates Carpenter’s irresistible charisma. She’ll also embark on a subsequent headlining arena tour, where she will assuredly continue her now-viral tradition of the ad-libbed “Nonsense” outro.
Carpenter is playing an exaggerated character, but she openly tells everyone that she’s playing up a character, which makes her all the more endearing and genuine. The best performers thrive in embellishment, but an exaggerated Carpenter is still an extension of a refreshingly honest person. Her calculated (non-derogatory), over-the-top persona resonates because she isn’t overcompensating for anything. At her core, she has always been an artist and songwriter with substance.
Close your eyes and point your finger toward any song in Carpenter’s deep discography, and you’ll find traces of the unique artistic vein accentuated across Short N’ Sweet. Carpenter is far from the first former Disney child star to possess acclaimed staying power as an adult. Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers, and Zendaya occupy most such lists. But what distinguishes Carpenter from, say, Miley Cyrus’ Bangerz era is that her autonomous awakening happened slowly, and then all at once.
During our 2019 interview, Carpenter offered insight into her forward-thinking long-term approach.
“It involves experimenting with weird makeup and maybe wearing outfits that people are like, ‘Well, that’s not normal for someone,’ Carpenter said then. “Kind of throwing preconceived ideas out the window and just doing what feels right because I’m young. When I’m older, it’s gonna be a little harder to wear crazy — or maybe it won’t be, and I’m just overthinking like I do usually. But I like to have as much fun as I possibly can.”
Five years later, it seems easier than ever for Carpenter to say what she wants, wear what she wants, or write what she wants. At 25, Carpenter is still so young. Although her age shouldn’t preclude her from indulging her uninhibited whims. If anyone can permanently throw the preconceived notion of a shelf life for fun and flirty women in pop, it’s Carpenter — just as she has already proved that fun and flirty doesn’t have to come at the expense of insightful vulnerability.
So, maybe this version of Sabrina Carpenter won’t last forever, but like everybody tasked with navigating the inevitable fluidity of the human condition, she’s undoubtedly developing the version you’ll fall in love with all over again five years from now.