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Sabrina Carpenter's career has recently skyrocketed and she's become one of the biggest pop stars of our generation. You may know her from her clever, improvised outros at the end of her song 'Nonsense' or iconic choreography during her song 'Feather,' which are both Billboard 100 charting-top hits, or from opening for Taylor Swift on the Eras Tour. Her rise to stardom may appear to be sudden, but that is not the case at all. She has been releasing music for ten years now and is finally getting the recognition she rightfully deserves.
I am not only a huge fan of Sabrina Carpenter's music; I really admire the diligence and dedication she has poured into her craft. Here is a rundown of her career so far and why I think Sabrina and her slow-rise success are so inspiring.
Under the Spotlight Her Whole Life
Sabrina has been entertaining since the age of two. She honed her skills by taking singing, dancing, acting, and guitar lessons from a very early age. At ten years old, she placed third in a singing contest hosted by Miley Cyrus, which landed her a record deal with a Disney-owned label.
Starting at fifteen, she released four albums in the span of almost five years. These albums included Eyes Wide Open, EVOLution, Singular Act I, and Singular Act II. She released the albums while simultaneously balancing an acting career. She is known for playing lead roles in Disney's Girl Meets World and Adventures in Babysitting.
Walking it Off Nonchalantly
Sabrina's rise to stardom has in no way been easy. She's faced numerous obstacles and setbacks in her career that she has resiliently persevered through. One notable instance occurred in 2017 when there was a gap in Sabrina's music career where she didn't release an album for two years.
This stands out because, at that time, she was releasing albums yearly. The delay is speculated to have been caused by her former managers, whom she fired in 2014, attempting to sue her for allegedly not paying them commission. They thought they deserved more credit for how popular Sabrina was becoming and waited until she turned 18 to sue her. She ended up winning the lawsuit, but because of the musical hiatus and the unfortunate timing of her show, Girl Meets World, coming to an end concurrently, Sabrina's subsequent two albums didn't get as much exposure as they should have. A few months later, she released an audacious single called ‘Sue Me’ about how people don't realize what they have until it's gone.
Shortly after finishing with Disney, things were looking up for Sabrina: she made her Broadway debut as leading lady, Cady Heron in Mean Girls: The Musical. Unfortunately, this was in March of 2020, so she only got to perform in two shows before the COVID-19 Pandemic shut down all shows on Broadway. Undeterred, Sabrina remained active in her acting pursuits with the release of Netflix's Tall Girl and Work It, and shortly after, Disney's Clouds; she played lead roles in all of these movies and even had other acting projects released at this time.
Can't Get Under Her Skin
Because of COVID, things were pretty quiet. That is until January of 2021 when Olivia Rodrigo released her hit breakup song, 'drivers license', rumored to be about Joshua Basset, whom Sabrina dated after her. Although the girls' relationships with Basset didn't overlap, social media did its thing and blew everything out of proportion.
Sabrina received a plethora of undeserved hate. Two weeks after the release of 'drivers license', Sabrina released a single called ‘Skin’, which was her release with her new recording label, Island records, in order to address the situation. Her name was big in the media because of the drama, which caused 'Skin' to receive over ten million streams in the first 48 hours of being released and become her first song to make the Billboard Hot 100.
A Pop Hit!
About a year after 'Skin' was put out, Sabrina released her first album in three years called emails i can't send. When she went on tour for this album, she got the brilliant idea to freestyle outros at the end of her hit song 'Nonsense'. She would sing an extra three lines at the end of her concert that would typically rhyme with or give a nod to the city she was performing in.
Videos of the outros started blowing up on social media. Because Sabrina had all this social media attention, more people started to listen to and recognize how great her music is. She got so popular that she released a deluxe edition of the album: emails i can't send fwd:, and went on a second leg of the tour.
Working Late
Soon after her tour ended, she hopped right back on stage and opened for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour in Latin America, Australia, and Singapore. Opening for the highest-grossing tour of all time really skyrocketed her career. She has since continued to mesmerize audiences at the 2023 MTV Music Awards, iHeart Radio's Jingle Ball, Time Square on New Year's Eve, and Coachella 2024. She even accepted the Variety Hitmakers Rising Artist Award at the end of last year.
Although only standing at 5 feet tall, Sabrina is a bigger than huge pop star. Everyone is talking about her love life, glowy make up, voluminous bangs, and witty sense of humor. And her latest single ‘Espresso’, is especially generating the most buzz. Peaking at number one on the weekly global Spotify Chart, people are calling ‘Espresso’ the song of the summer because it is so catchy that no one get it out of their head.
Now She's Ready to Fly
Sabrina has had such a fulfilling and well-deserved career. She's never peaked then fell off; she's worked hard to get to where she's at. At 24 years old, she's been making music for over a decade and is still just getting started.
The way she's persisted through hardships and career standstills proves that she is a role model worth emulating. She is living proof that with patience and dedication, your dreams will become a reality.
