Sabrina Carpenter: How She Became a Bona Fide Pop Superstar

The Man’s Best Friend singer went from Disney kid to a Grammy sensation and pop phenomenon. And her success didn’t come overnight.

Sabrina Carpenter’s road to fame may seem familiar. Like many pop girls before her — Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez, to name a few — she began her career on the Disney channel as a child actress before earning the coveted status of America’s pop princess. But her rise was anything but straightforward. It took years of detours, roadblocks, and reinvention before she finally took the world by storm.

Born in Pennsylvania, Carpenter is the youngest of four sisters and grew up in a supportive household that encouraged her to pursue her creative ambitions. Like many artistically gifted kids, she began posting cover songs online, eventually prompting her father to convert a closet into a makeshift recording studio. Several covers later, Disney’s Hollywood Records signed a deal with the star in the making.

At the same time, Carpenter was landing acting roles in shows like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Orange Is the New Black, before nabbing a co-lead role in Girl Meets World, a Disney spinoff of the ’90s sitcom Boy Meets World. While starring on the series, she released her first two albums, Eyes Wide Open and EVOLution, though both arrived with little fanfare. As she continued releasing music under the Hollywood label, Carpenter steadily expanded her on-screen resume. After Girl Meets World ended in 2017, she appeared in films including The Hate U Give, Netflix’s Tall Girl, and Work It.

By 2020, Carpenter seemed poised for a major breakthrough. She was set to make her Broadway debut as Cady Heron in the stage adaptation of Mean Girls, a role famously played by Lindsay Lohan in the movie. But after just two shows, the production shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A year later, Carpenter found herself swept into online speculation surrounding Olivia Rodrigo’s debut hit “drivers license” and its alleged love triangle. Neither artist confirmed the rumours, but many journalists interpreted Carpenter’s song, “Because I Liked a Boy”, featured on her 2022 album Emails I Can’t Send, as a response to Rodrigo, despite Carpenter stating otherwise.

That album — her fifth overall and first under Island Records — marked a turning point. Emails I Can’t Send was intimate and deeply personal. It served as a cathartic exercise in vulnerability, with Carpenter using songwriting to process public scrutiny and private heartbreak. To her surprise, the project was warmly received, spawning viral hits “Nonsense” and “Feather”. Both tracks showcased her sharp wit, playful humour, and growing confidence, offering listeners a clearer sense of her personality.

Those songs caught the attention of many, including Taylor Swift. While the two had crossed paths before, their connection deepened when Swift invited Carpenter to open for her record-breaking Eras Tour. Carpenter already had a sizeable fanbase by then, but the tour exposure sent it skyrocketing, introducing her to a much wider global audience.

Then came 2024 — a year beyond Carpenter’s imagination. After wrapping up her Eras Tour stint, she returned her focus to her own music, beginning with “Espresso”, the lead single from her sixth album, Short n’ Sweet. A fizzy blend of funk and pop, the track felt like a shot of dopamine into the veins, and consequently became a cultural moment almost overnight. Its cheeky line — “I’m working late, ’cause I’m a singer” — quickly took on a life of its own, dominating TikTok through dance challenges, memes, and countless remixes. Today, “Espresso” remains Carpenter’s most-streamed song, with over two billion listens on Spotify.

The pressure to follow up that success was immense, but Carpenter struck gold again with “Please, Please, Please”, a cinematic collaboration with producer Jack Antonoff. The track earned her first No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 and kicked off a run of chart-topping hits. By the time Short n’ Sweet arrived in August, Carpenter had firmly cemented herself as a pop phenomenon. Fuelled by patience and persistence, her upward climb culminated in six nominations and two wins (for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Pop Solo Performance) at the 2025 Grammy Awards.

Rather than slowing down, Carpenter leaned fully into her winning momentum. The result was 2025’s Man’s Best Friend, a glossy, confident record that signalled a fully realised musical era. Blending polished vintage glamour with razor-sharp one-liners and sharp storytelling, the album refined the showgirl persona she had been shaping since Emails I Can’t Send. More grown-up — and slightly more risque — than previous albums, Man’s Best Friend brims with jaw-dropping snark and flirtatious winks. Standout tracks like “Manchild” and “House Tour” put her unfiltered charm on display, making for a deliciously self-assured listening treat.

Now regarded as one of pop music’s hottest commodities, Carpenter can comfortably count A-listers like Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga among her peers. While it may have taken years to reach this point, the pint-sized diva is only getting started. With a highly anticipated headline slot at Coachella 2026 and the possibility of another Grammy win on the horizon, Sabrina Carpenter’s future as a music titan feels not just promising but inevitable.