Sabrina Carpenter's incredible journey to become a chart-topper

NEW YORK, NY – American singer-songwriter and actress Sabrina Carpenter is currently enjoying her success as the Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper for the first time in her career with her single "Please Please Please", which will be included on her upcoming sixth album, Short N' Sweet, to be released on Friday, August 23, 2024. Prior to that success, the 25 year-old had already established her music career since she was teenager. Here's the journey of Carpenter's music career so far.

A. Hollywood Records era

Carpenter began her music career at the age of ten by releasing cover of Taylor Swift's song "Picture To Burn" in 2009. Two years later in 2011, she released her first single "Fall Apart" under a independent label. Throughout her early career from 2009 to 2012, Carpenter auditioned and contested in numerous music contests, including the Next Miley Cyrus project where she finished third place. Then in 2013, Carpenter signed a five-album deal with Hollywood Records, one of Universal Music Group flagship labels which is also co-owned by Disney Music Group.

Carpenter's debut EP Can't Blame A Girl For Trying (2014) marked the start of her breakthrough music career.

"The Middle of Starting Over" single cover. The song was notably compared to Taylor Swift's early works.

Her debut EP Can't Blame a Girl for Trying released in April 2014 consisted of four tracks, including two singles "Can't Blame a Girl for Trying" and "The Middle of Starting Over". "Can't Blame a Girl for Trying" was written by singer Meghan Trainor in 2012 and supposed to be her single for her debut album Title in 2015. However, Trainor dropped the song from her album and instead gave rights to Carpenter. The song became Carpenter's first award-winning song, winning the Radio Disney Music Awards for Best Crush Song in 2015.

Carpenter's single "We'll Be The Stars" is one of the singles from her debut album Eyes Wide Open (2015). "We'll Be The Stars" is written by Skyler Stonestreet, who also co-wrote songs with and for other Disney Channel female stars like Dove Cameron, Sofia Carson, Bella Thorne, and Hilary Duff.

In April 2015, Carpenter released her debut studio album Eyes Wide Open. The album features two singles "We'll Be The Stars" and "Eyes Wide Open", the latter won the Radio Disney Music Awards for Best Anthem in 2016. Later that year, Carpenter began recording for second album.

Carpenter promoting "On Purpose", one of the singles from her second album EVOLution (2016).

On January 13, 2016, Carpenter released her standalone single "Smoke and Fire", a song that generally tells about relationships and breakup. The song is intended to be one of her singles for second album, however she dropped it instead because "the evolution came after it" Carpenter said. On July 29th, Carpenter released her single "On Purpose" and the music video released the following month in August, where Carpenter will bring us travel around London. In September, Carpenter announced that her 2nd album will be titled EVOLution, as well as releasing two pre-release singles "Run & Hide" and "All We Have Is Love".

EVOLution became a success with more mature material than her previous album. The dance-pop genre album charted in the top-thirty in the Billboard albums chart. The album received positive reviews from music critics because Carpenter's singing voice evolved into more mature one, as the album suggests. The album's second single "Thumbs" released in January 2017 is written by Muni Long (previously known as Priscilla Renea) which intended to be one of Long's singles for her 2018 album Coloured, but then dropped to give rights for Carpenter instead.

- Singular shows her massive maturity

Singular Act 1 album cover

On November 2018, Carpenter released her two-part album Singular; the first part released in November 2018 while the second part released in July 2019. The first part featured two lead singles "Almost Love" and "Sue Me" (both topped Dance Club charts); while the second part features three singles "Pushing 20", "Exhale" and "In My Bed". Prior to Singular, Carpenter collaborated with DJ duo Lost Kings for the single "First Love" in May 2017; and in April 2018, she collaborated with Swedish-American DJ Jonas Blue for the single "Alien". She also performed a cover of Doctor Seuss's 1966 soundtrack "You're The Mean One, Mr. Grinch" with violinist Lindsey Stirling, with a remix version featuring Tyler The Creator included as soundtrack for Dr. Seuss's 2018 animated film The Grinch.

Carpenter promoting Singular Act 2

Between Singular, Carpenter collaborated with Norwegian DJ Alan Walker for the single "On My Way", which featured on Walker's second production album World Of Walker (2021). "On My Way" became viral throughout 2019 and became Carpenter's first Billboard Hot 100 entry despite as a featured artist. To promote the Singular albums, Carpenter embarked her Singular Tour, where she toured across USA, and some countries in Europe, Asia and Australia. After Singular, Carpenter released her last singles with Hollywood Records: "Honeymoon Fades", and a featured duet single with Swedish singer Zara Larsson titled "Wow". Carpenter also contributed soundtracks from the two films she starred in 2020: Work It and Clouds. For Clouds soundtrack, Carpenter collaborated with Fin Argus and Samantha Brown to perform songs written by the late Zach Sobiech before his death. The Clouds soundtrack is exclusively a tribute album to the late Sobiech who died of brain tumor in 2013.

B. Island Records

"Skinny Dipping" is one of the singles from Carpenter's 2022 album Emails I Can't Send.

After ended her contract with Hollywood Records, in 2021 Carpenter signed with Island Records, one of Universal Music flagship labels where singers like Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes and Demi Lovato also signed with the label. Her first single with Island label, "Skin" released in January 2021. In summer that year, Carpenter began recording for her fifth album which will be released in summer 2022. The album preceeded with two singles "Skinny Dipping" and "Fast Times" released in September 2021 and February 2022 respectively. Then in March 2022, Carpenter announced that the title of the album is Emails I Can't Send which is reference from the "Skinny Dipping" music video.

Carpenter promoting for Emails I Can't Send (2022)

Emails I Can't Send released on July 15, 2022 with two more singles "Vicious" and "Nonsense". "Nonsense" is the highest-charting single from the album due to its viral success. Carpenter frequently performed her modified/other outro versions of "Nonsense" while performing on-stage during her Emails I Can't Send Tour, opening act for Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour in Latin America and Asia-Pacific countries, and more recent other performances such as in Coachella 2024.

On March 26, 2023, Carpenter released a repackaged version of Emails I Can't Send, titled Emails I Can't Send FWD:. The album includes four new tracks, including her single "Feather". Later that year, Carpenter collaborated with Charlie Puth in a duet titled "That's Not How It Works". Also in 2023, Carpenter also featured with K-pop girl group Fifty Fifty in a English version of their single "Cupid". Carpenter ended 2023 with her holiday EP Fruitcake, featuring the Christmas version of "Nonsense" called "A Nonsense Christmas".

- 2024: The year of Carpenter

Carpenter began 2024 by releasing a duet with Norwegian all-female rock band Girl In Red in a single titled "You Need Me Now?" from Girl In Red's album I'm Doing It Again Baby. Then she began recording for her upcoming sixth album, starting with "Espresso". The single released on April 11 and she debuted the song at Coachella the next day. "Espresso" became a immediate success, debuting at number seven on Billboard Hot 100, before peaking at number three in June. Outside U.S., the song also became more successful by topping in UK Charts for four consecutive weeks before being succeeded by her next single "Please Please Please". "Please Please Please" itself, which the music video features Carpenter's most recently dated Irish actor Barry Keoghan, debuted at number two in Billboard Hot 100, before it topped the charts the following week. Such an incredible achievement by a former Disney Channel star best known for her lead role as Maya Hart in Girl Meets World (2014-2017). There's totally no doubt at all that Carpenter will surely "take on the world".

ohhhh 😭😭😭 I’m a grateful grateful grateful girl pic.twitter.com/hNycPtMcHY

— Sabrina Carpenter (@SabrinaAnnLynn) June 24, 2024

If you want to watch Sabrina Carpenter on Short N' Sweet Tour, get your tickets now at Store.SabrinaCarpenter.com!

Sources:

• https://www.billboard.com/lists/sabrina-carpenter-please-please-please-number-1-hot-100/