(sorry in advance but this is going to be a longer post, I want to go over why I love sabrina and why she's such a great artist, the drama with olivia rodrigo and how that ties into the taylor and olivia drama, how taylor and sabrina's friendship came to be, and where I see this friendship going in the future (surprise it ends!))
first off, I don't know how people in this sub feel about sabrina carpenter or if they don't know her or dislike her due to proximity of taylor swift. I have definitely seen people comment that she's getting more popular because of taylor swift, taylor swift only brought her as an opener for the era's tour to get back at olivia, and of course the repeated rumor that sabrina "stole" olivia's boyfriend (people have said this stuff all over the internet and occasionally in this sub).
I'm 19 right now so I essentially grew up watching and listening to sabrina carpenter very closely and being fan so I can say that it was always clear she had the "it" factor and all of the talent that is finally getting appreciated now has always been there and is something she clearly has honed, worked on, and improved a lot. easy to say she is a triple threat or even more than that; great songwriter, amazing vocals (showcased even better in the covers she does), great performer with amazing stage presence and a pretty good dancer, and also is a great actress (she's definitely been focused more on music but still), is a "fashion girl", and has an overall very cool, fun, and effortlessly aesthetic image. I was lucky enough to see her live last year and can attest she truly is a great performer and since then she obviously was a big tour opener for the era's tour where undoubtedly that brought her talent more mainstream with the addition of her songs becoming more widespread on tiktok.
We need to backtrack to the drama that went down in january 2021, when olivia rodrigo released her debut single 'driver's license' which kickstarted the entire drama. personally i found the song okay and could see why people loved it but similar to the hype around taylor swift, i didn't find it to be some "groundbreaking lyrical masterpiece" just a heartbroken teenage ballad which cute. so very obviously I didn't expect it to kickstart a good year and a half of drama especially since most sabrina fans didn't even know too much about her and joshua dating as their relationship seemed to not go past like three tiktoks filmed together and one date that paparrazi captured. the drama was essentially portrayed as this "blonde older woman came and stole my boyfriend" but the reality was that sabrina and joshua dated after anything with joshua and olivia had ended (whether they were dating or it was a crush i don't know, since olivia was still a minor at the time) but point is the reality was way different but stans took the rumored version and ran with it. it also very quickly became apparent that olivia's new fan base seemed to consist of all the most toxic swifties, especially since olivia made it very apparent that she was a huge taylor fan, was inspired by her songwriting, covered her songs, and even seemed to try to market herself by pushing that association (which was actually a great marketing move until it wasn't). anyways swifties being her fan became obvious with everyone calling olviia "taylor's daughter" and taylor acknowledging her talent and essentially "taking her under her wing". and similar to taylor's style of sicing her psychotic stans on someone while pretending to be a victim in the situation, olivia did the same by implying sabrina at fault in several songs and whether her intention was or wasn't to have her stans send death threats to sabrina (and joshua), call sabrina a homewrecker and slu*t, and her stans essentially project their own unrequited love (I'm not joking there were several 30+ year olds in comments talking about how the situation reminded them of their crush from high school choosing the "popular girl" or someone else over them like it was weirdddd) it was clear very quickly that the drama and narrative was helping her music gain traction very quickly and I'm sure her team agreed to lean into it, along with olivia being very active online at the time and obviously seeing this all go down but not saying anything or telling her fans to stop. overall it was very jarring seeing someone who i've always thought deserves to be more mainstream finally getting attention but in very negative light and having her talent and character (which as someone who doesn't believe in parasocial relationships and obviously doesn't know her, she's always come across as genuine with other people attesting the same). anyways, sour is obviously a huge success and fast forward more than a year later of sabrina barely posting and being lowkey she releases 'emails i can't send' which ends up being her most commercially successful album, she touches on the narrative pushed about her in a couple songs but most obviously "because i liked a boy" which reveals that her and joshua had already broken up by the time of the drama going down and she also reveals in 'emails i can't send' that her dad actually cheated on her mom so i'm sure the "homewrecker" allegations hurt even more. all in all, sabrina managed to come out on top of the narrative as much as one can (which good for her because after all that hate and character assassination i think i'd crawl in a hole and never come out.) olivia rodrigo never gave her an apology (at least publicly which considering how public the drama was i think it should be addressed publicly) and the weirder thing is she was pictured happily next to joshua a few months after all the drama who the drama apparently revolved around, while another girl who wasn't in the wrong continued to face all the heat. also i'm sure olivia has changed since but everyone was giving the excuse that "she was young and didn't know better" for why she didn't say anything and I was like a year younger than her when this all went down and very much knew better so??
the other drama that occurred was olivia no longer being "taylor's daughter" after the cruel summer copyright drama happened which severed their relationship entirely and understandably olivia has distanced herself and cut all association from taylor as the woman she idolized and looked to for inspiration very clearly went after her as a powerplay and was just very malicious. i watched a wonderful tiktok of someone saying that taylor only associates with female artists who "aren't a threat" to her niche which is "singing like a heartbroken teenager" and olivia very obviously falls into this niche as she is an actual teenager and her lyrics are relatable to a lot of people and overall come off as more genuine than a 34 year old woman still cosplaying as a scorned teenager. all this to say i think that's an obvious reason that taylor would try to pit herself against olivia and of course a lot of toxic swifties "sided" with taylor because their cult leader has an issue with someone so they do as well but by this point olivia had built her own fan base that didn't entirely consist of swifties or maybe even reformed swifties so it didn't have a hit on her success and all around fame but simply shifted the narrative of their association in the media and by their fandoms. up until this point i really didn't like olivia rodrigo because i saw her as a "mini taylor swift" but not in a good way, very much in a "victim complex, woe is me, while sending her toxic stans to attack another girl because of a narrative she pushes in her music while not trying to stop them from sending hate despite being fully aware and them worshipping you" kind of way, so this was the first time i didn't see her as a taylor extension and even felt bad for her because having your idol try to sue you (or whatever the legal term is) as a power play is pretty sick.
fast forward a few more months and sabrina carpenter is announced as the tour opener for the era's tour which at this point she was undoubtedly getting more popular and positive attention through tiktok and social media as her songs "nonsense" and "feather" went really viral, especially her outros she did at concerts (another great marketing tactic whether intentional or not) but knowing taylor swift the other factor that went into choosing sabrina aside from talent and popularity was how it would look in light of all the olivia drama especially since she was very supportive of olivia in the peak of the sabrina hate train and didn't become "friends" with sabrina until the cruel summer drama happened so it's clear what motivated her. the actual tour opening went really well as sabrina is a great performer with lots of charisma, great vocals, cute outfits, etc. and a lot of people who weren't too aware of her before ended up becoming fans of her.
now that she is finished with being a tour opener, she has more than successfully released her single "espresso" ahead of her coachella performance which is another step in the mainstream direction and 'espresso' has become veryyyyyyyy well-liked by people all over, tiktok, and even a bunch of other celebrities. her latests single 'please please please' has also been released to a lot of success and fame, alongside the music video which hard launched her relationship with barry keoghan which is a clear shift away from all the boy drama about joshua bassett that plagued the olivia-sabrina narrative two years ago, especially considering olivia is also in her own happy relationship right now. overall sabrina carpenter is probably the most successfull and recognized she is right now, she's very much an "it girl" in all facets of music, fashion, beauty, and a fun personality. as for her current relationship with taylor swift they're still very associated and as per swifties usual mindset, a lot her success is being attributed to the "taylor effect" which even if the tour gave her some more exposure, it really undermines her talent and hardwork and will end up watering down her well earned success. going back to the tikok about why taylor saw olivia as a "threat" it also mentioned that the reason sabrina isn't viewed the same way is because she's not in the same "niche" which I agree as sabrina has a very fun, slightly sexy, and unserious approach to her pop while writing about relatable experiences like heartbreak but without solely focusing on being relatable and owning how successful and confident she is which might not be very "relatable girl next door". however while she's not the same "niche" in terms of music, i think taylor will begin to have a problem with her as she continues to dominate the charts more, make very popular pop music, and overall very visibly have the "it" factor that cannot be forced no matter how much taylor tries (and i think it very much bothers taylor that she can't buy this natural charm), sabrina also has a sense of humor in her interviews and performances/songs that feels very charismatic and likeable which is more "spicy" and clearly does not bother with make sure it's palatable table to the masses or "age appropriate" so that she can reach as many people as possible in the way taylor does, which has in my opinion increased her success and allowed her to take the new risks in her music. safe to say i think sooner rather than later taylor is going to turn on her (probably quietly) but it'll be a wonder to see if she drops her like she does most people, distances herself but poses with her when convenient, or tries to invent some dramatic narrative, i'm leaning more with the first two but you never know. as for sabrina carpenter, i definitely see her new album making it big and having even more hits and hopefully more opportunities but for her own sake i hope she distances from taylor before all her success is called into question and taylor tries to tarnish her reputation however possible once she realizes the "competition."
