Sabrina Carpenter Says Her Younger Self “Couldn’t Believe” Taylor Swift Asked Her to Collaborate

Long before she became a headline-grabbing pop artist, Sabrina Carpenter looked up to Taylor Swift. That admiration made Swift’s invitation to appear on the title track of The Life of a Showgirl — released this past autumn — especially poignant for Carpenter.

In a cover story for Variety published Wednesday, December 3, 2025, Carpenter described how surreal it was to sing alongside the musician who inspired her as a child. She said her 10-year-old self would never have believed the chance to hear their voices together, and confirmed that Swift reached out with the idea to collaborate.

Carpenter emphasized that both artists recognized the significance of the duet, and she expressed gratitude that Swift thought to involve her on a song that speaks authentically to experiences many young women encounter in the entertainment world.

The Life of a Showgirl closes out Swift’s October LP — the record that reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 — and includes audio sampled from Carpenter’s surprise guest spot on an Eras Tour stop. The track explores the darker edges of fame, with both singers reflecting on how young performers can be used and discarded by the industry.

When the collaboration was announced in August, Carpenter admitted on Instagram that she was overwhelmed with excitement — a reaction fans understood immediately.

In the same Variety profile, Carpenter discussed her own album, Man’s Best Friend, which builds on the sharp, adult-minded songwriting listeners first noticed on 2024’s Short n’ Sweet. Responding to criticism of some of the more explicit material, she suggested that the backlash is sometimes tied to audiences’ memories of her as a child performer.

“I can’t change the fact that I started working when I was 12,” she told the magazine, noting that those early associations make it harder for some people to accept her artistic growth.

See Carpenter on the cover of Variety below.

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