The pot has been stirred once again ladies and the tea is still piping hot. Before we dive into the drama-filled love triangle that is Olivia Rodrigo, Joshua Bassett and Sabrina Carpenter, let’s review what we know.
Olivia Rodrigo, a 17-year-old singer and actress, is rumored to have fallen in love with her High School Musical: The Musical costar Joshua Bassett, a 20-year-old actor and singer. Supposedly, Joshua told Olivia he’d wait until she turned 18 to pursue a romantic relationship with her but ultimately caught feelings for 21-year-old former Disney actress and singer, Sabrina Carpenter. Joshua and Sabrina have been rumored to be in a romantic relationship and have been spotted by the paparazzi looking VERY friendly. Olivia then released a hit song called “drivers license,” which has taken the music charts and Gen Z’s hearts by storm.
Okay, now that we covered that, it’s time for the good stuff. Take a deep breath ladies and prepare your emotions, because we are diving headfirst into the trenches.
A week after the debut of ‘drivers license,’ Joshua Bassett released his song called “Lie Lie Lie.” The song overall, in my opinion, is mediocre at best, but the lyrics are what matter.
Bassett’s first verse in the song is:
“So, they told me all the things that you said
Running all over my name
And you’re acting oh so innocent
Like I’m the only one to blame.”
He continues throughout the song singing “You’ve been lying to yourself,” “I know you’re lying through your teeth,” “I’ve heard enough of it this time,” and my personal favorite, “Kiss your ass goodbye….” Very subtle, Bassett.
We can only assume who the song is directed towards, but it doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together. This song is for Olivia Rodrigo, but Bassett wasn’t the only one to release a diss track towards Rodrigo.
On January 21, 2021, Sabrina Carpenter released her new song called “Skin,” and it immediately was streamed on devices everywhere as Olivia stans tried to uncover more of the drama. Soon after the song debuted, Carpenter received backlash for her song, as the lyrics were somewhat aggressive.
Carpenter starts off the song singing:
“Maybe we could’ve been friends
If I met you in another life
Maybe then we could pretend
There’s no gravity in the words we write
Maybe you didn’t mean it
Maybe blonde was the only rhyme”
Only 19 seconds into “Skin,” and it’s already obvious who the song is about. Pay close attention to the last line, “Maybe blonde was the only rhyme.” In Rodrigo’s “drivers license,” there is a lyric in which she sings, “And you’re probably with that blonde girl.”
Carpenter continues to take shot for shot. As the song builds to a peak, she sings:
“Want my heart to be breaking, breaking, no
I’m happy and you hate it, hate it, oh”
Then as the song bridges over to the chorus, Carpenter went straight for the throat with the lyric:
“You can try to get under my, under my, under my skin
While he’s on mine”
And that isn’t all folks. There is one more line that ties the messy knot that is the drama-filled trio. As the song leads into the outro at 2:20 Sabrina sings: “Don’t drive yourself insane.”
I KNOW. She really just did that. Sabrina woke up and chose violence the day she decided to record “Skin.”
Despite the 871,946 Spotify streams, the song upset people everywhere as they could not believe Carpenter’s response to ‘drivers license,’ in which Rodrigo admitted only that the blonde was everything she was insecure about, implying she was a ‘Heather’ as Gen Z would say. Fans went straight to social media platforms such as TikTok and Twitter to vent their frustrations and disbelief. Others, like TikTok star @yeahcolin, made a funny video comparing the tones of both songs. He pretends to be Olivia Rodrigo at first saying, “Oh, I’m just a little sad,” and then transitions to a clip in which he pretends to be Sabrina Carpenter. As Sabrina, he says, “We’re very intimate…We’re so in love…Oh not you?…Awhhh..” and then proceeds to laugh.
The video went viral of course as many people found it quite accurate as to how Sabrina reacted to Olivia’s song release.
Although one TikToker, @lesscascio, revealed that Sabrina did not actually write her song “Skin.” To confirm this, I went on iTunes to see who was listed under the writers. Now, it does say “Skin” was written by Tia Scoula, Ryan McMahon and Sabrina Carpenter.
Despite everything going down on social media, Sabrina was not done. Carpenter took to Instagram to address the drama in a post. In her post, she states, “Thank you to everyone who has listened to skin…especially those who have opened their minds to lyrically what I was trying to get across.”
Hold on. What else “lyrically” could she have meant other than good luck trying to get under my skin while he is on mine?
Carpenter also went on to state, “I wasn’t bothered by a few lines in a (magnificent) song and wrote a diss track about it.”
I found it very surprising that Sabrina decided to address the situation on Instagram, since all three of the singers had been radio silent after the release of “drivers license.” Each refused to confirm or deny whether or not what fans suspected was true. So, did Sabrina just confirm what we all have been thinking with her post?
Maybe so, but it all does fit just a little too perfectly for me. Along with many other social media users, I think there is a very big possibility that this is all just a big publicity stunt to promote the new music that each artist released within the past month. The songs all released a week after one another, which seems a little fishy in my book. All three of the singers have increased their streams at large and their social media followings and interactions have gone up significantly.
What do you think? Is this all just one very public messy love triangle or a brilliant publicity stunt? Let us know @hercampusbama on Twitter and Instagram!