On Oct. 26, Sabrina Carpenter kicked off the start of her 5 sold out shows at Madison Square Garden in New York City. She had previously begun her second leg of the Short Nā Sweet tour a few days prior in Pittsburgh, PA, but the first night of NYC always gets fans hyped because every artist knows how iconic it is to play Madison Square Garden. The highly successful tour for her album, Short Nā Sweet started just over a year ago before she quickly added a second leg, announced over the summer. Many fans questioned how her newest addition to her seventh studio album, Manās Best Friend would fit into the show with it being so new and not on the original set list.Ā
As fans gathered into the arena with hopes of catching the newest additions of merch, many spoke about the set list, spin the bottle song, outfits, and even who would be arrested before she plays āJuno.ā We were extremely happy to hear her two openers who we had heard some songs from: upcoming star Olivia Dean and Amber Mark, who were both extremely great performers that got the crowd ready for Sabrina.Ā
Ā As the lights dimmed, and the video started being played on the screen about Sabrina being in the bathtub, forgetting her clothes, leaving her in a bath towel, the arena screamed with anticipation as she came running out of her āhouseā to reveal a gorgeous New York City inspired body suit with the cityās skyline!
The setlist in the beginning remains somewhat the same, with songs from Short nā Sweet, and still including her top songs from her fifth album, Emails I canāt send which we belted out the lyrics to. The newest additions to the set include āManchild,ā āHouse Tour,ā and āTears,ā as well as the spin the bottle surprise song tradition that she has carried on since the first leg of the tour. In the spin the bottle segment of the show, Sabrina sits down with most of her dancers on the heart part of the stage at the end of the long runway, they drink from their bottles and she talks to the crowd about playing a game. She puts the bottle on the 4 segmented circle, then when she spins the bottle it lands on one of the four predetermined special songs that will be different for each show. Night 1, we got āGo Go Juiceā off of her newest album, a song that had never been played before on her tour!Ā
As she changed into multiple different outfits throughout the different segments, like the black bodysuit or the blue two piece long dress, she pretends to āarrestā somebody in the audience (most of the time being a celebrity). Her long skirt falls off making her iconic short, two-piece where she performs the last few songs of her show. Before performing āJunoā she arrested the highly esteemed Anne Hathaway who she calls a princess, referring back to her popular role as the princess of Genovia in the Princess Diaries (2001). After she arrests her, she performs “Juno” featuring a different āpositionā each night at the end of the heart, once again. The addition of āHouse Tourā from Manās Best Friend got everyone feeling like they lived on āPretty Girl Avenue.ā Nearing the end of the show she performs her greatest hits, featuring āPlease, please, please,ā her new single, āTears,ā and her encore performance of āEspresso.ā
Like usual, Sabrina Carpenter puts on a once in a lifetime performance, featuring live vocals, dancing, costume changes, and fun surprises that leave the audience always wanting more. With the addition of songs from her newest album, it left us all wanting another āhouse tourā from her where she sings all new songs from her latest album. The second leg of this album was definitely needed being that the arena is sold out for all 5 nights, just in NYC alone. The experience of going to a Sabrina concert is filled with glitter, hearts, and everything girlhood. The atmosphere is unlike so many other concerts, and is definitely more special when she comes to NYC where she fills the shows with so many new surprises!Ā