On Sunday (7 September) Carpenter attended the awards ceremony where she won three awards, Best Pop Artist, Best Album (for Short n' Sweet), and Best Visual Effects for "Manchild." The "Taste" singer also performed her new song, "Tears", during the show, in which she featured many RuPaul's Drag Race and queer icons. After the performance, Pascal, an ally to the LGBTQ+ community with a trans sister, Lux Pascal, took to his Instagram to celebrate Carpenter.
Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter triumphed at the MTV Video Music awards, taking home two moonman trophies each in a relatively muted show that once again largely celebrated female pop artists and legacy acts. Gaga, the most nominated artist of the evening with 12 nods, took home the first award at Long Island's UBS arena, for artist of the year, winning over fellow superstars Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny and Beyonce, all of whom were not in attendance.
A big part of the singer's allure is the way that she ultimately shrugs off the crummy choices she makes while in the throes of lust, boredom, yearning, whatever; she aspires not to normie perfectionism but to something more hectic, funnier, looser, more bonkers. In the video for "Manchild," a hitchhiking Carpenter climbs in and out of a string of preposterous vehicles, including a sidecar fashioned from a shopping cart, a Jet Ski on wheels, and a motorized recliner.
On 29 August, pop's bawdiest diva Sabrina Carpenter unleashed her seventh studio album Man's Best Friend, plus a The Rocky Horror Picture Show inspired music video for new single "Tears". The hazy, five-minute disco romp features actor Colman Domingo in numerous states of drag and Carpenter in numerous states of undress, with Domingo's character loosely based on the gothic film's iconic gender bender Frank-N-Furter.
Her commonalities with Parton have much deeper (dyed) roots. "She looks like she could be my little sister," the 79-year-old icon said of the 26-year-old Carpenter to Rolling Stone in June, the magazine pointing out that each is " a five-foot-tall blonde with serious pipes." The stronger link it overlooked is that both Carpenter and Parton are virtuosi of high-femme camp, particularly playing the role of the sexpot savant, the bombshell who's really a brainiac.
On the ABBA-inspired, orchestral disco track, Carpenter mourns that her ex broke up with her basically "overnight," leaving her in tears and with a desire for revenge. "To show you just how much it hurts, I wish I had a gun or words," she jokes. Instead of resorting to violence, she builds herself back up, making it clear that her ex can't go back on their decision.
