Sabrina Carpenter has explained the meaning behind the lyrics to her new song ‘Espresso’.
The song arrived last month, and came as the follow-up to her hit 2022 album ‘Emails I Can’t Send’ and recent singles ‘Nonsense’ and ‘Feather’.
It also came following the singer dropping a Christmas EP, and hitting the road with Taylor Swift, as she joined the pop icon as the support act for her recent run of ‘Eras’ tour dates across the US and Asia.
Now, Carpenter has opened up on the meaning behind the lyrics to the song, and explained that it’s about embracing the times when your confidence is skyrocketing.
“Now he’s thinkin’ about me every night / Is it that sweet? I guess so / Say you can’t sleep, baby, I know / That’s that me, espresso / Move it up, down, left, right, oh / Switch it up like Nintendo”, she sings in the chorus, also making more references to the feeling of someone being addicted to you in a relationship.
Explaining how she came to write the song in a new interview with Apple Music, the pop star revealed that she began work on the track while she was in France and looking to create a song that would be ideal to play live, but also have a sense of humour to it.
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“There was something really exciting about the fact that there was so much personality throughout the entire song, because those are the ones that are really, really fun to sing live with a crowd,” she explained.
“Those are the ones that people, I think when they don’t know my music or who I am or anything, they can just tune in to a single song and kind of leave with a better idea of my sense of humour.”
She also made reference to the empowering lyrics throughout, and explained that she was looking to capture the time when she felt confident in herself.
“This was one of those times in my life where I just thought I was the shit in the moment. And I think you don’t always feel that way, so you kind of have to capture those moments that you do because that’s how you find those little [gems],” she said.
“For me, equating it to caffeine and that addiction was really fun and I definitely have a caffeine addiction as it is. So it really ends up being a full circle for me.”
In a separate discussion with Vogue, Carpenter shed more light on the meaning behind the lyrics, and explained that she wants her listeners to feel empowered by their femininity when listening to ‘Espresso’.
“The song is kind of about seeing femininity as your superpower,” she recalled. “And embracing the confidence of being that bitch.”
In other Sabrina Carpenter news, over recent months the singer has been catching fans off guard by reimagining the outro to her track ‘Nonsense’ while performing live.
Not only did the singer deliver countless new renditions of the lyrics while opening for Taylor Swift – developing creative nods to each city that she was in – but she also used her live set at Coachella 2024 to make a cheeky nod to her partner Barry Keoghan.
At the final Coachella set last month, she sang: “Made his knees so weak, he had to spread mine / He’s drinking my bath water like it’s red wine / Coachella, see you back here when I headline”.
The “bath water” lyric references a now-infamous scene in Saltburn, during which Oliver (who is played by Keoghan) drinks Felix’s (Jacob Elordi) bathwater after spying on him pleasing himself in a bathtub.