Sabrina Carpenter Reveals How Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Inspired Her Short n’ Sweet Trek

Before embarking on her arena tour in support of Short n’ Sweet, Sabrina Carpenter got to learn firsthand from the mastermind herself: Taylor Swift. 

And in a new Vogue cover story published Tuesday (Feb. 11), the “Espresso” singer revealed exactly how the 14-time Grammy winner’s billion-dollar Eras Tour — on which Carpenter served as opener for 25 shows — inspired her own trek. “Her stadiums make my shows look like clubs,” the Girl Meets World alum added. 

“Watching her keep their attention as if she’s playing in their living room, it was like — and I told her this — ‘Your tour enabled me to do mine,’” she added. 

Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet Tour kicked off in September, with its North American leg ending in November. The vocalist will resume the trek in March with a monthlong run of European dates. 

Her stint on the global Eras trek came to an end just about a month before she released breakout single “Espresso” ahead of Coachella 2024. The track would propel her into superstar status and lay the groundwork for August’s Short n’ Sweet to become her first ever Billboard 200-topping album — but according to Carpenter, she originally wasn’t supposed to release the tune when she did. 

In fact, she says her label, Island Records, had wanted future Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “Please Please Please” to be the first song she dropped from Short n’ Sweet — but Carpenter felt strongly that “Espresso” should go first, and that she should debut it live during her now viral Coachella set. “There’s something about this song that, if I’d never heard it before, and I heard it live for the first time, I would understand it,” she told Vogue.  

“I was definitely being swayed in another direction, but I knew deep down that it was this song,” she added. “I was afraid of disappointing people for, like, five minutes. And then I was like: ‘No.'” 

Things eventually came full circle in October, when Carpenter returned to the Eras Tour for a surprise performance of “Espresso” alongside Swift. About three months later, the track won the singer-actress her first Grammy, taking home best pop solo performance moments before Carpenter won best pop vocal album for Short n’ Sweet. 

See Carpenter on the cover of Vogue below.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Vogue (@voguemagazine)