In the year 2024, I do not think it was possible to have not heard of Sabrina Carpenter in some way, shape, or form. Her first single off of her latest album, the extremely catchy Espresso, became so popular upon its release, and the line "I'm working late cuz I'm a singer" was in no doubt ingrained in my brain for most of the last half of the year. As I have mentioned plenty of times before, I have been a big fan of Sabrina Carpenter for close to a decade at this point. I believe her single "Smoke and Fire" had just been released when my sister and I first became obsessed with the young artist, and Sabrina ended up being my first ever "big" concert in (and probably my last because I cannot deal with the logistics, crowds, and long lines of concerts - way too stressful haha).
I have always admired Sabrina Carpenter, and I couldn't be more proud seeing her gain so much popularity and fame over the last couple of years.
I've mentioned this before as well, that Sabrina Carpenter is an admitted ABBA fan. As of right now, my compilation video is incomplete as it doesn't include the ABBA covers from Sabria's ABBA covers from her most recent tour, but this video I made does document her love for the band fairly well. Her cats are even named Benny and Bjorn! Plus she includes ABBA in her pre-show playlist that plays in the stadium before the concert, and she has included ABBA's music in her instagram reels.
But the ABBA connection doesn't stop there. ABBA seem to be quite inspirational to her in many ways. For her tour costumes, Sabrina mentioned that she and her designer took inspiration from the ABBAtar's costumes in ABBA Voyage (I believe it would be the turquoise and silver metal-y ones, not the ones that they featured in the video haha) ((Also i'm nitpicking slightly but THEY ARE NOT HOlOGRAMS)
these costumes
And then in a lovely interview with her producer, Jack Antanoff, he includes ABBA among the bands that inspired them while making the track Please, Please, Please, I'm assuming specifically in the harmonies but it could be in multiple different ways.
All of this to say - recently I saw a bunch of people online talking about Sabrina Carpenter and her ABBA inspirations, and then getting upset that they don't "hear the ABBA influence" in her songs, with others being like "omg she's trying to sound too hard like ABBA" and "she doesn't sound a thing like ABBA" and she "could never sound like Agnetha and Frida! They're way better singers than Sabrina", (these are paraphrases, not direct quotes) etc etc. But since when did Sabrina ever say she was a. trying to sound like ABBA, b. trying to sing like ABBA, or c. trying to sound like Agnetha and Frida?
As I prefaced my post with the quote from Bjorn in 1977, Sabrina has only ever demonstrated a love and inspiration from the band, and being influenced and inspired by said band does not mean that she's trying to sound like her influences.
To me this is just common sense, and I guess I just don't like seeing losers drag Sabrina through the mud due to a complete misunderstanding. But thankfully, Sabrina has been I'd say mostly appreciated in the ABBA fan communities, with even the old people who typically don't like that "gosh darn modern music" appreciating her wit, stage presence, crafty lyrics, and insanely-dirty-but-in-the-best-way sense of humor.
So yeah, that was my Sabrina being an ABBA fan, Sabrina Carpenter appreciation, and ABBA appreciation rant for you. :D
