Before fully immersing herself into a music career, Sabrina Carpenter was booking a few acting roles here and there; she was on Law & Order: SVU (where many up-and-coming stars get their start), and eventually went on to star as Maya Hart in Disney Channel’s Boy Meets World reboot, Girl Meets World.
Disney Channel gave her the exact platform that she needed. The company is known for trying to give all of its stars a music career, and Sabrina was no exception.
She sang the theme song for Girl Meets World with her costar, Rowan Blanchard, and then went on to release her debut single, “Can’t Blame a Girl for Trying” in 2014, closely followed by her debut album, Eyes Wide Open in 2015.
Once the show was over, she starred in several movies: The Hate U Give and Tall Girl being her most notable ones. In between working on film sets, she released three more albums, EVOLution, Singular Act I, and Singular Act II. While these albums each had songs that gained immense popularity, none of them really gave her that extreme boost of stardom, and a lot of people still only saw her as a Disney star.
Enter “Nonsense,” a track from her fifth album, emails i can’t send. The song immediately blew up on Twitter and TikTok, forcing Sabrina to eventually make it a single. She even released a sped-up version of the song and a Christmas version.
Not to be that person, but I’ve loved Sabrina since her Disney days, so I was excited to see that she was finally gaining the notoriety she very well deserves. I was shocked that “Nonsense” was the one song that finally got people to recognize how amazingly talented she is considering how many really great songs she already had in her discography (“Exhale” and “Feels Like Loneliness” being two of my favorites).
I think what really got people’s attention was the not-so-PG lyrics — it’s always shocking to people when former Disney stars step out of their good girl, cookie-cutter image. It happened with Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, and Selena Gomez. Everyone is drawn to the girls to see what they’ll do next and how far they’ve gone from playing their angel-eyed counterparts on TV. People also said the song reminded them of something Ariana Grande would release, and people were excited to see Sabrina taking on a new sound.
However, I think another contributing factor was how fun the song is. It’s upbeat and catchy, and the lyrics aren’t hard to remember at all. As silly as they are, we can’t deny her of her crazy good songwriting skills and vocal ability. Catching the innuendos and double entendres feels like a little game, and in an interview, she said she included the lyric about jumping up the octave simply because her voice could go that high. She’s so good at coming up with witty lyrics that she changes the outro for “Nonsense” to match whatever city she’s performing in at the time. Improvising and being able to write a catchy hook that quickly is a seriously cool display of talent.
I say all this to emphasize — Sabrina Carpenter is very underrated.
Yes, she was on Disney Channel, she has several albums out and went on a sold-out tour, but I don’t think the general public is really appreciating and paying attention to her artistry outside of her most popular hits. There’s also some aversion towards her because of the absurd 2021 drama triangle between her, Joshua Bassett, and Olivia Rodrigo that was exaggerated and blown entirely out of proportion. All three received hate trains so bad it overshadowed their work and a lot of people still refuse to see past the gossip to this day, only listening to their songs to see if anything is tied back to the feud. They miss out on some incredible music this way, and if Oliva, Sabrina, and Josh have moved on, everyone else can easily do the same.
Sabrina has several amazing songs that aren’t at the forefront, and she has songs for everyone, no matter what form of music they may enjoy. People who are fans of Ariana Grande’s pop music would enjoy “Nonsense,” as I mentioned earlier. They’d also like “Honeymoon Fades,” which is reminiscent of Ariana’s more R&B sound. People who like Taylor Swift’s singer-songwriter vibe might enjoy “Tornado Warnings” and “We’ll Be the Stars.” If you like K-Pop, she has a feature on FIFTY FIFTY’s track “Cupid” and those who like rap may enjoy the “Nonsense” remix with Coi Leray.
This versatility alone should have gotten her a bigger space in the pop game. She’s always changing up her sound and she’s not afraid to experiment. She could go toe-to-toe with a lot of people in the industry. Her energy during her live performances is unmatched and she’s really good at making her concerts feel intimate and safe, no matter how large the crowd is. Comfortability and adaptability are two important traits to have as an artist and Sabrina is definitely not lacking in those areas.
If people looked at Sabrina past TikTok trends, her small-scale Netflix roles, and Girl Meets World, they’d be able to see that she’s a fully formed artist with a clear vision for the kind of star she wants to be. Hopefully one day she can get her flowers and have her name written in the Pop Girl Hall of Fame.