Sabrina Carpenter Reveals the Secret Clue About ‘Man’s Best Friend’ She Hid in the ‘Manchild’ Video

Sabrina Carpenter had a big year in 2025, propelled by the momentum of her Man’s Best Friend album era, which kicked off with the release of lead single “Manchild” in June.

And as the final weeks of the year count down, the pop star is looking back at the cinematic music video she released for the track through an episode of “Vevo Footnotes” posted Thursday (Dec. 18). In the clip, she recalls how she hid a secret clue about her seventh studio album in the visual long before the full-length had even been announced.

“I basically hid the acronym for my new album ‘Man’s Best Friend’ on the motorcycle license plate,” Carpenter wrote over the shot of herself and one of many male actors in the project riding on a motorbike stamped with “MBF_0000.” “I didn’t see fans make the connection until after I announced the album, which was funny.”

The two-time Grammy winner unleashed the “Manchild” music video on June 6. It wasn’t until five days later that she announced Man’s Best Friend, which went on to become her second No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, and is now up for album of the year at the 2026 Grammys. “Manchild” also debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100 and is nominated for song and record of the year.

Elsewhere in the new recap, Carpenter revealed that “every man that you see driving a vehicle was really driving that particular vehicle” in the “Manchild” music video, so she chose to “just let Jesus take the wheel” while on set. 

She also shared how a certain comedy legend inspired the project. “I think Lucille Ball is one of the first great females that used humor as her superpower,” she wrote. “I like to think that it sort of happened through my writing; I felt more connected to songs that really embraced that part of my personality.” 

Watch Carpenter’s episode of “Footnotes” above.