Sabrina Carpenter is celebrating the release of her seventh studio album, Man's Best Friend, by making no apologies for her lyrics and risqué sense of humor. The pop singer recently said in an interview that she's perfectly fine with her music not being for everyone.
Ahead of the August 29 release of Man's Best Friend, Carpenter sat down with Gayle King for a CBS Mornings interview where they discussed her music being “unapologetic." King noted that some people might listen to Carpenter's music while “clutching their pearls,” but added, “But then I'm thinking, ‘then this song isn’t for you.'”
“Correct,” Carpenter replied. “It's not for the pearl clutchers.”
She then added that “even pearl clutchers can listen to an album like that in their own solitude and find something that makes them smirk and chuckle to themselves.”
Sabrina Carpenter has become a pop superstar over the last year following the success of her cheeky single, “Espresso,” and the album that followed, Short n' Sweet. In 2024, she toured with Taylor Swift on a portion of the Eras Tour, took home her first two Grammys, and performed at major festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza during her own tour.
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Her fun and sexual lyrics have often been the subject of discussion and criticism. After teasing the album cover for Man's Best Friend, many took issue with the imagery and title — which features Carpenter kneeling before a suited figure who is pulling her hair. Some criticized the cover for being misogynistic and feeding into the male gaze. The singer later released an alternative version of the album cover and joked that it was “approved by God.”
But Carpenter is used to the complaints about her “really bold” lyrics and performances, and understands that people feel like they're “TMI” to sing out loud.
“But I think about being at a concert with however many young women I see in the front row who are screaming at the top of their lungs with their best friends, and you go, ‘We can all sigh of relief, this is just fun.’ And that's all it has to be,” Carpenter said.
Despite her popularity, the negative comments do shine through. But Carpenter said that she doesn't need everyone to be a fan.
“You don’t have to like what I do. I think there's this weird misconception that every artist has to check every box for everyone to like everything about them,” Carpenter continued. “It's never been that way. It's never gonna be. So, I'm okay if Tommy from Arkansas doesn't like what I do.”
