Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
Us Weekly
Who Is the Brunette Featured in Sabrina Carpenter’s Album Promo? Us Has Some Guesses
By Molly McGuigan,
13 hours ago
Sabrina Carpenter. Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images for Loewe
Please, please, please let Us listen to an iconic collaboration on Sabrina Carpenter ’s new album.
Just days away from the release of Short n’ Sweet , the pop star posted a series of pictures on Instagram teasing her new music, the last of which features herself standing next to a dark haired woman, both facing away from the camera.
“Taste me!” Carpenter, 25, captioned the post, which was uploaded on Tuesday, August 20, seemingly referencing her song “Taste,” which is first on the album’s tracklist.
Fans immediately flooded the comments sharing their guesses as to who the mystery dark-haired woman is — and hoping Carpenter is teasing a musical collab.
Courtesy of Sabrina Carpenter/Instagram
“WHO IS THAT IN THE LAST PIC,” one fan wrote on Instagram. “We need answers.”
Another fan added: “LANA? KATY? WHAT ARE YOU HIDING UNDER THOSE BANGS?”
While the playful pop star may be trolling fans — the figure next to her could be wearing a dark-haired wig, after all — Us Weekly has some guesses as to who the mystery collaborator might be. Here’s hoping this black cat / golden retriever duo gives Us another song of the summer.
When thinking of a dark-haired pop star, one icon immediately comes to mind: Katy Perry .
While the “Firework” singer took a brief hiatus after giving birth to her daughter, Daisy, in August 2020, Perry, 39, is currently promoting her upcoming album, 143 .
Set to be released on September 20, a few weeks after Carpenter’s album comes out, Perry’s new album features singles “Woman’s World” and “Lifetimes.”
While the two singers have never collaborated before, Perry posted a TikTok lip syncing to Carpenter’s “Espresso” back in April. It’s entirely possible, especially given Perry’s robust promotional campaign for her new album, that she is featured on Carpenter’s album, hoping to gain some momentum with Gen Z.
Lana Del Rey
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Carpenter is part of a exclusive club very few musicians have been part of: Taylor Swift ’s inner circle — and so is Lana Del Rey .
All three musicians share a producer (and friend) in common, Jack Antonoff , who also worked on Short n’ Sweet . Moreover, Carpenter became close with Swift, 34, when she joined The Eras Tour as an opener, while Del Rey, 39, and Swift have a long standing friendship. Swift even invited Del Rey — who collaborated with her on her Midnights track “Snow on the Beach” — on stage with her when she was awarded Album of the Year at the Grammys.
While Carpenter and Del Rey have never collaborated before, they posed for a picture together, along with Antonoff and Ice Spice , at the Pre-Grammy Gala earlier this year.
During Carpenter’s set at Outside Lands music festival, she surprised fans by bringing out Kacey Musgraves to sing a duet of Nancy Sinatra ’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.”
“There’s an artist that I’ve just loved for my entire life, and she is just so remarkable in so many ways, and her voice has just taken me through so much of my life in so many pivotal moments and she means the world to me,” Carpenter told the crowd before introducing Musgraves, 36. “Somehow she cleared her schedule to be here with us tonight.”
Musgraves is also promoting her recent release, Deeper Well , and will begin the second leg of her tour in early September — perfect timing for a collaboration!
Charli XCX
Brat summer may be coming to a close, but Charli XCX still seems to be everywhere you look.
Along with Carpenter’s “Espresso” and “Please Please Please” and Chappell Roan ’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess , Charli, 32, has soundtracked our summer with her latest album, Brat .
As some of the hottest female musicians of the moment, a collaboration between Carpenter and Charli would certainly be one for the books.
Madison Beer
Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Vanity Fair
While she may not be a household name like some of the others on this list, Madison Beer seems to be the most-guessed name of the mystery brunette in Carpenter’s Instagram comments section.
“Omg Sabrina Carpenter Feat Madison Beer?😮👀,” one fan wrote.
Beer, 25, might fit the bill: She’s the same age as Carpenter, has dark hair and has spoken on the pair’s friendship in the past.
“I love Sabrina so much,” she said on PopBuzz’s “Making the Album” podcast in October 2023. “I think we’ve always had each other to look at throughout the years… I’m really, really proud of her… It’s really cool to see someone that’s a really genuine person, a really kindhearted girl, a really hard worker, very talented, win! And she’s winning.”
In that same interview, Beer also teased a potential collaboration with Carpenter.
“Hopefully a remix will come someday,” she said. “I’m working on it. She’s quite busy at the moment, and I guess so am I, so we’ll see when we can get together, but I know we both want to. We talk about it a lot.”
Marina Diamandis
Like Perry, Marina Diamandis , who performs under her first name only, hopped on the “Espresso” trend on TikTok , singing along to the lyrics, “I’m working late / ‘Cause I’m a singer.”
Marina’s video prompted Carpenter to comment, “I love you Marina!” which led fans to speculate about a potential collaboration between the two musicians.
Carpenter also covered Marina’s song “How To Be A Heartbreaker” in 2015, demonstrating her longtime love of the singer.
Lorde is known to take extensive, off-the-grid breaks between her albums, but the “Solar Power” singer recently made headlines when she and Charli XCX dropped a surprise remix of “Girl, so confusing.”
Would the New Zealand singer do another surprise collaboration? It’s possible.
She has also worked with Antonoff, who produced her 2017 album, Melodrama , and her 2021 album, Solar Power . Carpenter has also shown her appreciation for Lorde, covering her song “Liability.”
Tyla
Some fans have speculated Carpenter’s collab could be with another up-and-coming singer, Tyla . Carpenter showed her love for the “Water” singer earlier this summer, commented on her June Instagram post of her DAZED cover , “Would love to take you to dinner.” Tyla, 22, jokingly replied, “Pick up at 4:11💋.”
Fans also pointed out that since Tyla is only 5’3”, she might match the profile of the dark-haired woman in the photo, who stands at the same height as Carpenter, who is 4’11” (presuming Carpenter is wearing heels).
Olivia Rodrigo
Getty Images (2)
One of the most unlikely guesses — which is sure to break the internet if it is proved to be true — is that Olivia Rodrigo is the mystery brunette.
The two singers were rumored to be feuding after Rodrigo, 21, released her debut single, “Driver’s License,” referencing a “blonde girl” fans speculated was Carpenter. Both Rodrigo and Carpenter were linked to fellow Disney star Joshua Bassett at one point in time, fueling rumors of a love triangle.
Years later, it seems all parties have moved on, but Carpenter and Rodrigo have still never made a public appearance together. A collaboration between the two former adversaries may be just what the world needs right now.
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.
Comments / 0