Whilst many of us have discovered her music for the first time in recent years, Carpenter's musical career is nothing new. It began ten years ago when she signed a ten-year-long record deal with Walt Disney Records, starting in 2013 at just fourteen. During her time at Disney, Sabrina released four studio albums: 'Eyes Wide Open' (2015), 'Evolution' (2016), 'Singular: Act I' (2018) and 'Singular: Act II' (2019). Despite this consistent output, Disney never seemed to prioritise promoting her music or amplifying her as an artist in any way, resulting in her work receiving minimal commercial success. Despite her original contract trapping her with Walt Records until 2023, Sabrina managed to cut her ten years short after the end of the Disney Channel Show 'Girl Meets World' in 2017.
Quickly after her departure from Disney, Carpenter got what seemed to be her first big break when she was cast as Katie Heron in the Broadway production of ‘Mean Girls the Musical’, alongside leading lady, Renee Rapp. Despite this seemingly great opportunity, Sabrina’s time on Broadway was cut short after just a handful of shows in March 2020 due to the global pandemic which saw the musical permanently removed off Broadway, leading Sabrina to take a year long hiatus.
Despite such a fallback, Carpenter's fate began to change in 2021, during her infamous relationship with fellow Disney star Joshua Basset. Basset's, at the time, recent ex, Olivia Rodrigo, was skyrocketing to fame with the release of her hit single 'Driver's Licence' followed by the phenomena that was her debut album 'Sour' (2021). The single amounted to over 1.1 billion streams and became the most-streamed song globally of 2021. It took both original and new fans no time to begin speculating that the album described her relationship with Basset thus both he and Carpenter faced months of prosecution, insults and even death threats regarding public disapproval of their relationship. Whilst initially, this seemed like another blow to Carpenter's career, following a few months of silence, she hit back with the release of her first album with Universal Music Group's Island Records, titled 'emails I can't send' (2022). This began to turn opinions in her favour as fans realised they could appreciate both women's musical talents without pitting them against one another.
The singer-songwriter seems to be nowhere near running out of novel ways to reference her romantic and sexual life
Though the album initially brought in more success than those prior, it was the accompanying tour that changed Sabrina's fate dramatically. Notably, it came from viral videos of the outro of her hit single 'Nonsense' (2021) which were individually adapted for each city she performed in. Her witty and hilariously outrageous wordplay brought in a new crowd of support that ultimately led to the release of an extended album, 'emails I can't send: fwd' (2023) as well as leading to her being invited for Taylor Swifts, The Eras Tour.
More recently, Carpenter has reached new heights with the release of her album 'Short and Sweet' (2024), featuring hit singles 'Espresso' and 'Please Please Please', both of which reached simultaneous number one and two on the Billboard Hot 100. In a musical landscape recently plagued by a widespread obsession with authenticity and poeticism, Carpenter has provided the pop scene with thirty-six minutes of fun escapism. The album acts as an extension of Sabrina's already established flirty personality, featuring provocative breakup songs such as 'Taste' and 'Dumb and Poetic' alongside relatable fan favourites such as 'Good Graces'. Across the twelve tracks, Carpenter plays with a long list of stylistic crossovers ranging from glittering pop-rock, R&B, singalong and folk-pop, all achievably stung together by her priceless vocal ability. Whilst the overall sound of the album is harder to distinguish, its humour and lyricism is sharp and recognisable as no one but Carpenter. The singer-songwriter seems to be nowhere near running out of novel ways to reference her romantic and sexual life and Short and Sweet's casual and goofy sex positivity is perhaps its biggest charm. In an era where musicians seem to be focusing on their poetic trauma, Sabrina focuses on battling the front line of miserable modern dating in a way that pushes boundaries with charisma and fantastically simple yet genius lyricism.
From performing at Coachella, Capital's Summertime Ball and selling out her 2025 tour in a matter of days, 2024 has been the year Carpenter has been waiting for. Whilst she has certainly waited her turn (ten years to be precise) to become an 'overnight' success, I would argue that her long career has prepared her for this moment and allowed her to emerge as an already defined, individualistic and sensational popstar who will continue to grow to unpredictable heights.
