Sabrina Carpenter Is Vying for Grammy Nods in Top Categories With 2 Different Hits — Hey, It Worked for These Acts

Artists generally pick their strongest hit from the year and enter it in the Grammy competition for both record and song of the year. That’s what such artists as Billie Eilish (“Birds of a Feather”), Beyoncé (“Texas Hold ’Em”) and Ariana Grande (“We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)”) did this year. This Grammy strategy can be summarized in the immortal words of Pat Benatar: “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.”

But sometimes, artists enter different hits for record and song of the year. Sabrina Carpenter is taking that approach this year.  “Espresso” is vying for a nod for record of the year. “Please Please Please” is competing for a nod for song of the year.

Carpenter and Amy Allen were among the co-writers of both songs. They co-wrote “Please Please Please” with Grammy darling Jack Antonoff. They co-wrote “Espresso” with Steph Jones and Julian Bunetta. This entry strategy may be good news for Antonoff, who is also competing for a song of the year nod for “Fortnight,” which he co-wrote with Taylor Swift and Post Malone. But it was bad news for Jones and Bunetta, perhaps costing them a song of the year nomination. (There is no best pop song category, so we can say with certainty that “Espresso” will not be up for a songwriting Grammy.)

Allen and Jones are both vying for nods for songwriter of the year, non-classical. Allen was nominated in the category two years ago, which was the category’s inaugural year.

Carpenter’s camp also submitted “Espresso” (rather than “Please Please Please”) in the best pop solo performance category.

Let’s scroll back through all the times an artist was nominated for record and song of the year with different hits. We’re including all songs that were at least co-written by the artist (or a member of the group, in the case of groups). But we’re not including songs that the artist didn’t write or co-write, because the song of the year nomination didn’t go to them. The years shown are the years of the Grammy ceremony.