I t’s hard to believe, but there were summers before Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso came around. The breezy daytime disco track was only released in April, but already it has contributed one brilliantly stupid neologism (“that’s that me espresso”), spent seven weeks at No 1 in the UK and racked up 1bn streams on Spotify. It has also saturated the world’s coffee shops, bars and taxis so thoroughly that it’s a viable contender to be the song of every summer, à la Get Lucky.
Part of the appeal is that it’s sugary sweet but playfully ominous in tone, Carpenter warning the object of her desire that her charms are so strong he is liable to develop insomnia. She says that when she started writing the song, on a holiday in France last July, “it was a manifestation tactic, because no one liked me romantically at that point – no one was obsessed with me”, she says, letting out a low, deviant chuckle. “I didn’t have anyone I was even talking to.
I’ve always been a bit delusional, in that sense.” What a difference a year makes: Carpenter, 25, has ridden the success of Espresso – the first single from her sixth album, Short’n’Sweet, released today – to become one of 2024’s biggest pop stars, a decade after she released her first single. These days, pop musicians often have to settle for niche fame, as opposed to more traditional markers of success such as sellout arena tours, chart hits or household-name status.
But Carpenter has achieved all three..