State Champ Radio Short N Sweet
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This month, Sabrina Carpenter said hello to Paul McCartney and goodbye to her Short n’ Sweet Tour.
In an Instagram post on Monday (Nov. 24) — one day after the pop star played her final show of the year-plus tour — the former Beatle shared a photo of himself and Carpenter in a backstage area at one of his concerts. In the snap, McCartney poses with an arm around the Gen Z star’s shoulders as she smiles at the camera.
In his caption, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer called his meet-up with Carpenter one of the “highlights” of his ongoing Got Back Tour. “best show ever,” the Girl Meets World alum commented on the post, which she reshared onto her Story.
Also on her Story, Carpenter reflected on wrapping her own tour in support of the Billboard 200-topping albums Short n’ Sweet and Man’s Best Friend, with her final show going down at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday (Nov. 23). “short n sweet tour for life,” she wrote, posting a photo of herself posing beneath the stage.
Carpenter added, “sorry for crying during espresso.”
The two-time Grammy winner definitely has cause to feel emotional. The close of Short n’ Sweet comes after she spent more than a year on the road, originally kicking off the trek in September 2024. She’s since completed two North American legs, plus a run of shows in Europe.
Midway through the tour, she dropped Man’s Best Friend, which features Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single “Manchild.” Along the way, she also made headlines numerous times for her series of “arrests” at shows, giving out fuzzy pink handcuffs to celebrity guests such as Millie Bobby Brown, SZA, Gigi Hadid, TWICE and, at the last show in L.A., Miss Piggy.
“You’re so funny, Miss Piggy, wow!” Carpenter said during the hilarious exchange with the Muppet. “You’re like the only celebrity I get nervous to be around. I’m getting really flustered … We’ve arrested so many beautiful individuals and I feel like tonight is your night.”
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Sabrina Carpenter hit an appropriately cheeky milestone on Saturday during her fifth of six nights at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena: Her 69th concert of the Short n’ Sweet Tour.
“My friends wanted me to inform you: This is our 69th show,” Carpenter announced while sitting on her heart-shaped stage, sending the crowd into wild cheers over the spicy stat.
It’s a fitting marker for the trek: Since its September 2024 kick-off, the Short n’ Sweet Tour has been known for its little suggestive moments, like Carpenter’s nightly “Juno” sex positions (“have you tried this one before?”), the voyeuristic “Bed Chem” video camera (“I bet the thermostat’s set at six-nine”), and the elevator that ticks up the floors until “SC” comes just after the 68th.
“We knew we’d get there eventually, and tonight’s the night,” Carpenter said of the 69th show. “And it’s Saturday, and we’re just like, we’re living!”
In one more nod to Night 69, Carpenter emerged for the final song, last year’s top five Billboard Hot 100 smash “Espresso,” in sparkly blue go-go boots and an oversize Los Angeles Dodgers jersey, with her last name emblazoned on the back and the jersey number of — you guessed it! — 69.
Another tongue-in-cheek nightly tradition is Carpenter arresting someone in the crowd for the crime of being “too hot,” and Saturday night’s offender was actress and Saturday Night Live legend Maya Rudolph, who Carpenter asked: “Whoa, whoa, whoa — what’s your name, gorgeous?” After Rudolph mouthed back “Maya,” Carpenter responded, “Maya, you’re stunning. Where are you from?” She mouthed “Los Angeles” and made her best attempt at throwing up an “L.A.” hand sign, but Carpenter didn’t think the crowd had a big enough reaction. “Scream louder — that’s here!”
Then she got down to business: “Maya, I don’t know the situation you’re in currently romantically, but I was sort of hoping that I could lock you down tonight, if possible.” (Let’s hope Rudolph’s partner of almost 25 years and the father of her four children, acclaimed filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, isn’t feeling threatened.) She then tossed some fuzzy pink handcuffs out into the crowd to officially lock Rudolph down.
Previous L.A. arrestees included SZA on Thursday night and actress sisters Dakota and Elle Fanning on Monday.
Carpenter returns to Crypto.com Arena on Sunday (Nov. 23) to play her sixth night in L.A. and the final night of her 70-date Short n’ Sweet Tour. Find the full setlist for Los Angeles Night 5, including the special “spin-the-bottle” surprise song and the newly added Man’s Best Friend additions, below.
“Taste”
Trending on Billboard Sabrina Carpenter got two for one with her latest Short n’ Sweet Tour “arrest,” with the pop star stopping her show in Los Angeles on Monday night to charge sisters Elle and Dakota Fanning with being too hot. In clips from the singer’s second of six shows at Crypto.com Arena, Carpenter singles […]
Live from the Short n’ Sweet Tour, it’s Domingo.
On Sunday night (Nov. 17) at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, Sabrina Carpenter brought out a very special guest straight from Miami for her tour segment where she arrests a crowd member for being “too hot” ahead of her frisky song “Juno.” This time, it was Domingo, the seductive Saturday Night Live character played by Marcello Hernandez who originated in a viral sketch last month to the tune of Carpenter’s smash hit “Espresso.”
“My name’s Domingo,” Hernandez said from the crowd to wild cheers, after catching Carpenter’s attention. When Carpenter asks where he’s from (“I’m from Miami, baby,” he growls), she replies, “I wish you were from my bedroom.”
Hernandez then riffs off Carpenter’s lyrics yet again by paraphrasing the words to the saucy Short n’ Sweet cut “Bed Chem”: “I’m the cute boy with the blue jacket and the thick accent.”
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“Is there anything you want to say before I arrest you, Domingo?” Carpenter asks, which sends him straight back to that original SNL sketch: “Came all this way had to explain direct from Domingo/ Sabrina’s a friend, she’s like my sis… but I would hook up though.”
Domingo’s first appearance on SNL came Oct. 12 and featured host Ariana Grande singing an uncharacteristically out-of-tune bridesmaid group song. Carpenter reacted to the bit last month, joking on her Instagram Story alongside a clip: “Very nice and on pitch.” Sharing the singer’s appraisal on her own Instagram Story, Grande replied, “tysm we tried.”
Hernandez’s tour appearance was especially timely since Domingo resurfaced on the latest episode of the long-running comedy series Saturday night, when host Charli XCX starred in a new sketch set to Chappell Roan’s “Hot to Go” (“D-O-M-I-N-G-O” was a perfect fit all along).
Previously on the tour, Carpenter “arrested” Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown at her Atlanta stop, saying, “I’m really distracted right now because I see this gorgeous girl,” as she interacted with the actress on the big screen.
Sunday’s show was one of three stops for Carpenter’s tour in the Los Angeles area, starting Friday night at Crypto.com Arena – where she brought out Christina Aguilera for “What a Girl Wants” and “Ain’t No Other Man” – and wrapping Monday night back at the Forum.
Watch Carpenter’s moment with Domingo below:
Few people are having a better week than Sabrina Carpenter. The singer capped one of the most complete ascents to pop stardom in recent memory with the release of her latest album, Short N Sweet — the culmination of an extended campaign in which she was able to build her career brick by brick, single by single, into the upper echelons of pop music and culture — which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 362,000 equivalent album units, the best week of her career and the third-highest debut week of the year so far.
That type of success doesn’t happen by accident: Carpenter’s team worked all sides for this project, which included radio (two songs, “Espresso” and “Please Please Please,” are in the top 10 of Billboard‘s Radio Songs Chart), streaming (Short N Sweet also debuted at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Streaming Songs chart, with 233 million official on-demand streams) and sales (with nine vinyl variants, she sold 105,000 vinyl records, the second-largest week of the year and good for No. 1 on Billboard‘s Vinyl Albums chart). Four digital album variants, available for a limited time, moved 45,000 units, while five different CD editions added another 33,000 to the total. And all that activity and wide-ranging success helps Island Records’ senior vp/head of commercial strategy Marshall Nolan earn the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.
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Here, Nolan walks through the strategy that led to Carpenter’s career-best debut. “The plan from the start was that every detail mattered,” Nolan says. “We knew to double down on her strengths, in areas like e-commerce, and once we built a rhythm there, it afforded us the time to nurture elements that still had room for growth.”
This week, Sabrina Carpenter landed her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with Short N Sweet. What key decision(s) did you make to make that happen?
Sabrina’s ability to world-build alongside her incredible team of creatives is unparalleled. We challenged ourselves to take that world and embed it into every e-commerce experience, building a range of carefully-curated collectibles for her superfans.
In many ways, the rollout of this album was very traditional: single built on top of single, radio play and streaming build-up, all leading into the climactic album release. Was that the plan from the start, or did things evolve along the way?
The plan from the start was that every detail mattered. We knew to double down on her strengths, in areas like e-commerce, and once we built a rhythm there, it afforded us the time to nurture elements that still had room for growth.
How did her singles’ success at radio help the digital campaign for the album?
Constant communication with our promo team, who are the best in the business, allowed us to narrate each movement and growth spurt in real-time. We as a team never focused on the successes of an individual single; the intention was always to build Sabrina as an artist and brand first. We welcomed any success that came along with that.
The album had nine vinyl variants, five CD editions and two cassettes available — what was the physical strategy for the album rollout, and what was behind the success of the vinyl in particular?
The variants are first and foremost a reflection of the incredible creative team surrounding Sabrina, who built products that fans immediately embraced as must-have collectible items. From the packaging finishes to the stylized content with which it was promoted, her passion for each variant came through in every detail. Each product paid special tribute to the many layers of Sabrina’s sharply sweet world.
How much does fan demand play into your commerce plan for any album?
This was another important factor in deciding to offer a wide range of album variants. Sabrina crafted a world we’re lucky to be a part of; we ensured that each album offering felt like an extension of it.
What did you learn from rolling out this release that you can take into other projects in the future?
Everything starts with trust — learning to build it, continuing to maintain it and working to strengthen it every step of the way. We never take for granted the role we are fortunate enough to play in maximizing and achieving an artist’s wildest dreams. Sabrina taught us all to allow time for a slow rise, there is so much to learn and look forward to along the way.
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