Until early this year, Sabrina Carpenter was one of many artists who were deemed to have potential. But within a few short months, her new album Short n’ Sweet that is slated to drop on August 23 has become the album to watch out for in the latter half of this year. Meanwhile Sabrina Carpenter hit major milestones as a major artist. She performed at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival (“Coachella”), attended the Met Gala, and was invited to perform on SNL—all for the first time. “Espresso” and “Please Please Please” are some of the most memorable back-to-back hits. The two songs peaked at third and first place respectively on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, both topped the Spotify global chart, and are currently very well received both in and outside the U.S. This year’s Song of the Summer chart was made up of a good mix of tracks by both superstars and up and coming artists, which was impressive, but Sabrina was the only one to have two songs on the list.

Having shown talent for music and acting from a young age, Sabrina had her first big break when she appeared on Girl Meets World (available for streaming on Disney+) in 2014. She also signed with Disney Music Group’s Hollywood Records around the same period and kick started her musical career. Since then, she has participated in a number of Disney projects like Milo Murphy’s Law and released a debut EP and four albums by 2019. But she really shot to fame when people started speculating that Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license” was about a love triangle, and that the blond girl in question was in fact Sabrina Carpenter. Two weeks after “drivers license” Sabrina dropped “Skin.” It might sound like she was reacting to Olivia’s lyrics, but nothing was confirmed. “Skin” reached 48th on the Hot 100 chart. It was her debut song on the chart.

After Sabrina left Disney/Hollywood, she signed with Universal Music Group’s Island Records. Olivia Rodrigo opened a new age of music in which young Disney alumni began their musical careers in ways that were set apart from the likes of Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus. She kept a close bond with the teen fans, but that didn’t restrict her music to the “teen pop” genre. The company respected her personal tastes, gave her creative freedom, and provided her with the resources for composition and production. Island Records saw similar potential in Sabrina Carpenter, and that’s how we got her 2022 album Emails I Can’t Send. It wasn’t an immediate hit, but it was highly rated within the industry. Her performance at her album tour where she performed in 80 concerts over a single year from September 2022 got her the opportunity to open Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour. Her appearance in The Eras Tour was locked in in June 2023 and she performed in Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil in August and November. In essence, Sabrina had been preparing for the next step of her career by performing non-stop from “Nonsense” which hit 56th on the February 2023 Hot 100 chart to “Feather” which hit 21st on April 21 this year.

Then came “Espresso” and Coachella. Her vocals that she had been honing for years were broadcast all over the world, and her incredible stage design shined under the burning afternoon sun. The song showcased her vocal chops in one of the most important moments of her career. And it was a success —the song debuted seventh on the Hot 100 chart. Criticism that it leaned into black female artists’ flexible style of swinging from pop to R&B to hip hop is generally well-founded. But “Espresso” successfully set itself apart visually by using a retro color palette in the music video and stage design, highlighting Western American culture. When Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish each came out with blockbusters in their own ways, someone noticed that the spot for young Madonna was vacant.

How about “Please Please Please”? She even rode the current trend and expanded her portfolio to country ballads. Sabrina takes the classic theme of getting caught up in her rebel partner’s troubles but adds her own modern flair with humor (“Don’t bring me to tears when I just did my makeup so nice”) and strength to protect herself (“Heartbreak is one thing my ego's another I beg you don’t embarrass me mother******”). Her real-life boyfriend Barry Keoghan appears in her music video, and the two are reborn as the latest version of the Hollywood cliché: the reckless couple. Like “Espresso” “Please Please Please” is a much smarter and well-thought-out endeavor than simply trying out the latest trend. Sabrina Carpenter's sudden explosive rise to the top wasn’t achieved in a single day, nor was it a coincidence. She definitely has many people anticipating Short n’ Sweet.