The 67th Grammy Awards took place on February 2nd and it was quite a notable one. We got interactions between all of our favourite celebrities — Billie Eilish and Chappell Roan, Taylor Swift and Cynthia Erivo, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars — but perhaps the most shocking of all was the interaction between Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter.
I say “shocking” because these two pop icons were previously involved in a love triangle with Olivia’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series co-star, Joshua Bassett.
Let’s throw it back to the year 2021.
TIMELINE OF EVENTS
- On January 8th 2021, Olivia’s debut single “drivers license” was released (I remember in vivid detail because I stayed up til midnight to listen to it…instantly knew it was going to break records)
- People had already been speculating that Olivia and Joshua had dated and broken up in the previous year and, prior to the release of “drivers license”, paparazzi photos of Joshua and Sabrina had been circulating the internet.
- “drivers license” includes lyrics such as “you’re probably with that blonde girl, who always made me doubt. She’s so much older than me”. Sabrina, being both blonde and older than Olivia, seemed like the obvious subject of these lyrics.
- As you can imagine (or might remember), Sabrina began to receive a lot of online hate from Olivia Rodrigo fans.
- On January 22nd, not even one month after “drivers license” came out, Sabrina told her side of the story in a song called “Skin”.
- The song “Skin” opens with the lyrics “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 ‘blonde’ was the only rhyme” and later in the bridge she says “don’t drive yourself insane”. Both lyrics directly reference “drivers license” and unfortunately this made people online dissect the topic even more, which is surely the opposite of what both women wanted.
- On April 1st, Olivia released her second single “deja vu” which included the lyric “another actress, I hate to think that I was just your type” which again points to Sabrina Carpenter.
- One year later on July 15th 2022, Sabrina released her fifth studio album titled emails i can’t send which includes her hit song “because i liked a boy”. In the song, Sabrina talks about the harsh backlash she received from people online after the release of “drivers license” and Olivia’s debut album SOUR.
- In “because i liked a boy”, Sabrina says: “I’ve got death threats filling up semi trucks” and “I’m a rebound going round stealing from the young” referencing the comments people made about her.
- On September 8th 2023, Olivia Rodrigo released her second studio album GUTS. In her song “love is embarrassing”, Olivia humorously recalls embarrassing thoughts and doings from her youth that were in the name of love. She says: “you found a new version of me and I damn near started world war three. Jesus what was I even doing?” This could be a reference to the drama that ensued after she released “drivers license”.
THE INTERACTION
- In the time between 2021 and the present, both Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter have skyrocketed in fame. They’ve both attended many of the same award shows but had never been seen interacting…until now.
- A video of the two icons has been circulating the internet and in it they’re hugging and laughing amicably.
Is this the end of a four-year-long feud?
I’m just hoping this means we’ll get a collaboration. My ears are ready to hear the heavenly lyrics and melodies these two would stir up.