Pop artist Sabrina Carpenter began her “Short n’ Sweet” tour in Columbus, Ohio on Sept. 23. This is her first solo headlined arena tour and is named after her album released on Aug. 22. The tour is set to go through North America and Europe, before concluding in March 2025 in Milan, Italy.
Carpenter has been in the music industry for over 10 years. She released her first cover and collaboration with her sister Sarah Carpenter, “Make You Feel My Love” featuring Nathaniel Hawk and Cameron Hawk (the violinist and pianist) in 2011 and her first album, “Eyes Wide Open” in 2015. Before her career as a singer fully took off earlier this year, she was most known amongst Generation Z for her role as Maya Hart in the Disney Channel sitcom “Girl Meets World” which began in 2014 and ended in 2017.
“I remember seeing her back on Disney Channel and hearing some of her random Disney Channel songs like ‘Thumbs’ but I never really listened to her music until the ‘Emails I Can’t Send’ album,” said junior Ameer Jaber.
“Short n’ Sweet” is Carpenter’s sixth studio album which surprised many people because she wasn’t a household name in music despite breaking into the mainstream last year with her “Nonsense” outros. “Nonsense” is a song from her previous album “Emails I can’t Send,” where at the end of the song she created a rhyme that correlated to each city she performed in. An example of this would be her Houston outro, “Made it to the outro how you doin’? I’m starting to think love is an illusion. Beyoncé is the greatest thing from Houston.”
Her fame only skyrocketed this year after the release of her song “Espresso” on April 11, a day before she performed at Coachella weekend one. “Espresso” became her first song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 24 and her next single “Please Please Please” had similar success by becoming her first song to hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on June 24. The album itself debuted as number one on the Billboard Hot 200 on Sept. 3 and became a platinum record, meaning it sold over 1 million copies, on Sept. 29.
In this new album, Carpenter leaned heavily into the ‘60s aesthetic with her tour, promotion, and style rather than continuing to keep hearts as her main brand. She incorporated many lace and sheer outfits, babydoll dresses, and pastels into her concert wardrobe to enhance the album’s aesthetic.
Her set design is similar to that of a mid century modern dollhouse with an open structure showcasing two floors and four rooms that allows Carpenter to within her concert.
“The set design is so cute and it fits her vibe so much. I feel like her publicity, they did a really good job in making like a brand for her,” said junior Bethany Tomenis.
Some fans felt that the set design made the concert feel more intimate despite Carpenter performing to tens of thousands of people.
“Sabrina somehow managed to make an area feel like a corner of her bedroom,” said fan Muna Cho via TikTok.
Along with her unique set design, she does a different “Juno” pose (a pose she strikes during her song “Juno”) at every concert that fans look forward to. This has become this tour’s new “Nonsense” outro.
“I think is probably a really big reason the tour is going so viral on TikTok and social media because everyone is posting about it, wondering which one they’re gonna get,” said Jaber.
Even though Carpenter’s tour is higher quality from her previous tours, some are in disbelief about the ticket prices. For her “Emails I Can’t Send” tour, tickets started at around $40. Now her tickets start at over $100, and have gone up as the demand for the tour increases.
“I think that the ticket prices are really expensive for her concerts… I feel like I could invest that money in something else and not just a concert,” said Tomenis.
Despite the high ticket prices, Carpenter’s tour is one of the most anticipated events among her fans. There are some nearby events she is set to perform at such as the Crypto.com Arena on Nov. 15 and the Kia Forum on Nov. 17-18. Tickets for Los Angeles via AXS, an American ticket outlet for sports and entertainment events, start at $325 and for Inglewood via Ticketmaster start at $476.
