Sabrina Carpenter had the best year of her career in 2024, and she proved herself to be one of music's biggest stars with her recent NPR Tiny Desk show. Carpenter's 2024 album Short and sweet debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2025 Grammy Awards. The former Disney actress recently concluded the North American leg of her tour, which produced several viral moments on social media. From covering songs like ABBA's “Mamma Mia” to trying out new poses during “Juno” every night, Sabrina Carpenter's tour has taken social media by storm.
Adding to her star power, the “Espresso” singer released a Netflix Christmas special called An Absurd Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter. It included Carpenter's performances of songs from his 2023 Christmas EP, Fruit Cakeas well as covers of classic Christmas songs like “Last Christmas” featuring Chappell Roan. As the year comes to a close, Carpenter has a lot to prepare for. With six Grammy nominationsanother awards show performance may be imminent. Luckily, the 5-foot-9 singer has been practicing a lot from her world tour to her VMAs performance and, most recently, her stop at NPR headquarters in Washington, DC.
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Espresso
Written by Sabrina Carpenter, Amy Allen, Steph Jones and Julian Bunetta
Sabrina Carpenter kicked off Coachella this year with a brand-new single that quickly took pop radio by storm. "Espresso" was a huge hit with its catchy melody and silly lyrics. It's no surprise that it made it onto Carpenter's NPR setlist. The performance was more stripped back than some of Carpenter's other performances, setting it apart from how she has sung in the past. The singer also gave a brief speech before singing the hit song, citing is nominated for the next Grammy and confessing that she never imagined how successful it would be when she was writing it.
Although it's the song that changed the trajectory of his career, it's hardly Carpenter's strongest song. Short and sweet. Still, its light-hearted nature makes it fun to listen to, and the singer and her band seemed to have fun throughout the performance. Carpenter even did some of her signature dance moves while singing the lyrics to what is arguably the most popular song she's ever released. At times it felt a little tired due to how much she's played since its April 2024 release, and she seemed more passionate about a few other songs on the setlist.
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I like
Written by Sabrina Carpenter, Amy Allen, Julia Michaels, John Ryan and Ian Kirkpatrick
With "Taste" as the opening track in Short and sweet and the first song on the tour's setlist, it's no surprise that Sabrina Carpenter kicked off her NPR Tiny Desk show with the single. When Short and sweet ruled, the actress turned singer released “Taste”, a song reportedly inspired by her affair with Shawn Mendes. Like "Espresso," this hit was cut for NPR. Carpenter added a bit of a country twang to the pronunciation of the lyrics, imitating artists like Shania Twain and Kacey Musgraves. Although "Taste" was also a huge hit, Carpenter gave it new life on his NPR show.
Carpenter has long since moved on from the situation that inspired the song, but she brilliantly channeled some pettiness into her performance. Widening or squinting her eyes at times to emphasize the lyrics, the singer proved how capable she is of capturing the emotions she used when writing in her performance. Carpenter even added her signature laugh to the track right after the lyrics, where she jokes about her habit of ending up in public love triangles. It was the perfect way to start the NPR show, even if “Taste” became almost as campy as “Espresso.”
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Juno
Written by Sabrina Carpenter, Amy Allen and John Ryan
While “Espresso” might be the perfect way for Sabrina Carpenter to end her Short and sweet Tour, she changed things up for the NPR show. Instead, she finished with the tenth track from her album, “Juno.” Carpenter received backlash for performing "Juno" on her tour due to her posing during the lyrics about testing"strange positions." However, the positions became one of the tour's stables. Carpenter further explained how she was inspired to write the scandalous track. According to the star, she was writing a joke song with friends after watching the movie Diablo Cody Juno.
Carpenter told the NPR audience the lyrics "make me Juno"it sounded to her like a funnier way of saying"hit me."The song is one of the best pop hits of all time. Short and sweetand Carpenter kept it equally fun during the NPR set. She even dropped out while singing the beginning of the chorus, differentiating it from the recorded version and the tour version. Despite the reaction, the 25-year-old singer even included one of her positionsmaking it a little more PG by running his ass over some bar bells.
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Bed chemistry
Written by Sabrina Carpenter, Amy Allen, Julia Michaels, John Ryan and Ian Kirkpatrick
One of the biggest hits on Carpenter’s album is “Bed Chem.” The song quickly went viral on TikTok, focusing mainly on some of the X-rated lyrics. However, other popular lyrics included those that seemed to be linked to the first day Carpenter met her then-boyfriend, actor Barry Keoghan. Carpenter's band did a beautiful job translating their R&B production to a more acoustic performance. However, what made the presentation even more special was when Sabrina explained how “Bed Chem” came about. The song's lyrics are apparently about Carpenter's attraction to a man she thinks would be great in bed.
However, the phrase "bed chem" did not originate from a romantic interest. Carpenter explained that she was sleeping in a hotel bed with her friend Paloma Sandoval when they both effortlessly fell asleep at the same time. The next morning, they also woke up at the same time and agreed that they had great chemistry in bed. She revisited the phrase when she met a guy she was attracted to, confessing that she also thought she would have great chemistry in bed with him. The song is already beloved, but it's even more special now that Carpenter revealed the origins of the phrase to his fans.
The NPR show wouldn't have felt complete if Carpenter hadn't included "Bed Chem" in the setlist. The 6th track of Short and sweet it also has some witty and comical lyrics, and the verses are more spoken than sung. However, with Carpenter's charisma, she managed to deliver them perfectly in the performance. She also proved her vocal strength by hitting the high notes perfectly in the chorus.
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Fine Choices
Written by Sabrina Carpenter, Amy Allen and Jack Antonoff
While Short and Sweet is mostly filled with pop and R&B inspired songs, the former Girl meets the world the actress changed things up with the track “Slim Pickins.” Since her rise to stardom, Carpenter's music has been compared to everyone from Ariana Grande to the '70s Swedish pop group ABBA. However, "Slim Pickins" has earned comparisons to the work of Dolly Partonwhose 1980 single "9 to 5" reached number one Short and sweet setlist a few times. After three pop-inspired performances on NPR's Tiny Desk, “Slim Pickins” was a perfect break. Carpenter also transitioned into jabbing seamlessly.
After singing the last notes of “Please Please Please,” Carpenter’s guitarist went straight into “Slim Pickins” while joining in on the lyrics. The song chronicles Carpenter's love struggles, feeling that there is very little choice of men in the world. From her point of view, if the good ones aren't dead, they've already been taken by someone else. While Carpenter only sang a portion of the song, "Slim Pickins" stood out from all of his other hits. This proves Carpenter is capable of tackling any genre he chooses and sung live, it's just as magical as it is on the album.
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Please, please, please
Written by Sabrina Carpenter, Amy Allen and Jack Antonoff
While “Espresso” may have started a new era of huge success for Sabrina Carpenter, “Please Please Please” marked a first in her career. In June, when the song was released, it became Carpenter's first number one song on Billboard's Hot 100.. The Jack Antonoff-produced single leaned heavily on synth-pop, similar to the music he makes with Taylor Swift. However, Carpenter presented himself very differently on his NPR show. The singer leaned heavily on orchestral instruments like the cello and violin while performing "Please Please Please" for NPR, keeping it extremely simple at first.
The song's drums, which she co-wrote with Antonoff and Amy Allen, only start playing in the second half of the chorus. From here, the band continues while Carpenter and his background singers add some handclaps to go along with it. With a #1 spot on Billboard and a Song of the Year nomination at the 2025 Grammys"Please, Please" is a high point in Carpenter's career. It might just be the best song in the world Short and sweetand the NPR appearance felt like a celebration of the incredible work she did with Antonoff and Allen.
Lyrics like "I beg you don't embarrass me, motherfucker,” are the result of Carpenter’s wicked sense of humor that contributed to his rise to fame. However, there is also something very authentic about “Please Please Please”. Sabrina Carpenter has been hurt in the past and publicly humiliated by media attention on her relationships. In this song, she is practically on her knees, begging her current partner not to put her through the same embarrassment as her last partners. All of this comes across in his NPR performance, which is why it's the best of the Tiny Desk show.