Sabrina Carpenter Says Her Childhood Self ‘Could Not Believe’ Taylor Swift Asked Her to Collaborate
Before she became a pop-music showgirl herself, Sabrina Carpenter idolized Taylor Swift — making it all the more special when the latter invited the former to collaborate on the title track of The Life of a Showgirl, which dropped this fall.
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And in a cover story interview with Variety published Wednesday (Dec. 3), the Gen-Z pop star opened up about the surreal experience of singing a duet with her childhood hero. “Ten-year-old me, for so many reasons, could not believe it — to hear our voices together,” Carpenter told the publication, going on to explain that Swift was the one to reach out with the idea of working together.
“We definitely realized it was special, but I would have never been like, ‘Hey, bestie, put me on a song,’” she said. “She was so gracious to think of me for a song that spoke to our life experiences in such a real, genuine way. It really sums up what so many young women in this industry go through.”
“The Life of a Showgirl” appears at the very end of Swift’s Billboard 200-topping October LP. Sampling audio from Carpenter’s guest appearance one night on the Eras Tour, the track finds the two ladies singing about the hidden downfalls of being a young starlet eaten up by the entertainment industry. (“Do you wanna take a skate on the ice inside my veins?” Carpenter sings on the track. “They ripped me off like false lashes and then threw me away.”)
“i know someone who’s freaking out and it’s me,” the Work It star wrote on Instagram after the collaboration was first announced in August.
Elsewhere in the Variety interview, Carpenter opened up about her own album, Man’s Best Friend, which builds upon the witty, NSFW writing style with which she first shot to superstardom on 2024’s Short n’ Sweet. Of the backlash to some of her PG-13 lyrics, the singer — who first found fame as a tween acting on Disney Channel’s Girl Meets World — said, “I think it wouldn’t matter so much if I wasn’t a childhood figure for some people.”
“But I also can’t really help that,” she added. “It’s not my fault that I got a job when I was 12 and you won’t let me evolve.”
See Carpenter on the cover of Variety below.
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