It’s a surprise to no one when I say that “Espresso” has easily been the biggest hit of the year so far. What was supposed to be a “little song” before her first ever Coachella performance, quickly became the nº1 female song with most days at #1 on Spotify Global in 2024 (and counting), her first ever song to chart on the top 10 Billboard charts, garner over 10 million streams daily, and be proclaimed by multiple magazines as “The official song of the summer”.
What the general public doesn’t seem to know is that her apparent “overnight success” was actually built up of 10 years worth of hard work coming from the singer, so today we will give you a rundown of Sabrina Carpenter’s long history in the industry!
early years
Even though Sabrina has been focusing her time on her music career for the past couple of years, she used most of her early years building an acting career! From starting out by making guest appearances in hit shows like Orange Is The New Black, her official breakout role was Maya in the Disney Channel hit series Girl Meets World back in 2014. Along with that, she was also signed with Hollywood Records, a label created by Disney to recruit young stars and kick start their music careers.
Sabrina would go on to release 4 albums under the label, with a few songs such as “Thumbs” (from the album EVOLution), “Sue Me” (from Singular act I), and “Looking at Me” (from Singular act II”), that got a certain amount of popularity for her to build a loyal fanbase that would support her on for many years to come.
Due to a lack of investment and promotion from Hollywood Records, as well as a difficulty to step out of her “Disney girl” image, she would leave the record label, and go on to find a home on her current label, Island Records, in 2021.
A NEW ERA
The singer’s first work under her new label was the single “Skin”, and while it achieved many music charts , it was carried over by the current controversy surrounding her alleged relationship with the singer, Joshua Bassett, and whether he was with her while also being unfaithful to Olivia Rodrigo.
As much as this drama was entirely speculative, with no solid proof of any possible affair to this day, the media did what it does best, and tainted Carpenter’s image to the general public as a “homewrecker”, and that her career was “over”. Because of this, Sabrina was on the quiet side of things for most of 2021, with her only releasing what would be her first album single, “skinny dipping”, in September of that year.
EMAILS I CAN’T SEND
It was in 2022 when things started to take a turn for the “Espresso” singer. She released another single, “Fast Times”, in February of that year, and fast forward to late June, finally announced that her highly anticipated album, emails i can’t send, would be released in July of that year.
With bops such as “Vicious”, “Read Your Mind”, and “because i liked a boy”, the body of work was critically acclaimed for its deep and personal lyrics about the past year that she had gone through after being treated horribly by the media, as well as amazing production and vocals, and fans instantly loved it.
One song that stuck out to fans was “Nonsense”, a song about how being in love with this guy makes Sabrina “thinking nonsense”, with amazing vocals as well as funny and relatable lyrics. Months after that, the singer would go on tour, perform different outros for every concert, and go viral on social media for it, which gained a lot of attention to the song.
The song would officially become a “sleeper hit”, gaining over 800 million streams (and counting!), and giving Sabrina a chance to branch out into the eyes of the general public, and for them to explore her full discography.
Fast forward to 2023, the deluxe edition of the album, emails i can’t send fwd, would be released, and the song “Feather” and its fun music video would go viral over the funny relatable lyrics about how she feels “lighter like a feather” with him off her mind. It didn’t take long enough for the live performances of that song to also go viral, catapulting the track into becoming another “sleeper hit”.
the eras tour
In June of 2023, it was officially announced that Sabrina would be an opening act for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour in Latin America, as well as the Asia, Australia and New Zealand legs of the tour.
Even though she was already on the way to becoming a main pop girl, opening for the biggest artist at the moment on the biggest tour of the year still helped the singer catapult her music catalog to thousands of fans who got to see her performing live.
‘espresso’
Sabrina would go on to tour with Taylor until March of this year. In the weeks between that and her official debut performance in the iconic Coachella main stage, things are on the quiet side for her, until she announces a new era on the horizon with the official release of “Espresso” on April 11th.
The song and music video were instant hits with critics and the general public, with lyrics such as “i’m working late, cause i’m a singer” and “say you can’t sleep, baby i know; that’s that me, espresso” going viral everywhere. Her Coachella performance was also widely acclaimed as one of the best of this years’ edition.
WHAT ‘S NEXT?
Carpenter would go on to focus her two next months to promoting “Espresso”, until she finally announced that her highly anticipated album, Short n’ Sweet, will be coming out August 23rd.
Not too long after that, she officially released the second single off the album, “Please Please Please” on June 6th, featuring Jack Antonoff as the producer, as well as her current boyfriend, actor Barry Keoghan, in her action packed music video.
The single has been pulling over 6 million streams daily, the music video has amassed more than 12 million views in just 3 days, and critics and fans have already claimed the album as one of the most anticipated albums dropping during the second semester of the year.
If there’s anything we can learn from Sabrina’s long decade in the industry, it’s that “instant success” isn’t an easy thing to achieve as people make it out to sound like, but as long as you continue to believe in yourself and keep working hard to deliver the very best, being the “tortoise” among the “hares” will pay off in the end.
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The article above was edited by Larissa Buzon.
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