Sabrina Carpenter takes on Hyde Park with wit, charm and unstoppable hits

These BST Hyde Park headlines feel like a bit of a victory lap for Sabrina. While her Powerpop Girl counterparts Charli xcx and Chappell Roan’s summer 2024 dominance was ushered in by their festival performances, Carpenter’s was more algorithmically-fuelled, her household-name status quickly sticking as she held onto the number one spot in the UK for almost half of last year with three different hits. Her tour in support of ‘Short n’ Sweet’ hit these shores as recently as March, seeing Sabrina level up from two nights at The O2 at 20,000 punters each in the spring, to two nights at Hyde Park, flogging a whopping 65,000 tickets each day, a fact she recites on stage with bewilderment.

But as last year’s long-awaited breakout stars take different routes - Chappell takes the back seat, slightly overwhelmed by her ascension; Charli gets on stage weekend after weekend and contemplates the longevity of her peak - Sabrina has no problem rattling out more mega hits. The opening number is ‘Busy Woman’, straight out of the deluxe edition of ‘Short n’ Sweet’, it’s an apt start with it’s lyrics about not wasting time. Because Sabrina doesn’t waste a second on stage. ‘Taste’ comes in second as a blast of total joy, while the throwback R&B of ‘Good Graces’ serves as a reminder of how many more hits this record could’ve (should’ve) had.

Any quick breathers taken off stage are filled with ‘adverts’ on the giant screen making up the stage backdrop. In the first half for ‘Manchild Spray Away’, in the second half directing us to call ‘1-800-BED-CHEM’ for a vibrating mattress, both obviously leading into their respective tracks. These interludes double down on the sense of humour Sabrina regularly lets out in song, punctuating her all-American-girl image with wit so dry it’s clear why she’s such a hit this side of the Atlantic.

‘Manchild’, despite finding itself at the centre of internet discourse of late (her upcoming album ‘Man’s Best Friend’ and its cover art featuring Sabrina on all fours next to a man holding a fistful of her hair was recently accused of setting back women’s rights, which is a little bit dramatic, but what’s a pop superstar without a little controversy?) proves a highlight and fantastic singalong. It’s ironic that Carpenter’s been slapped with the anti-feminist label, when really, getting an overwhelmingly female crowd to shout about men being stupid, slow and useless is, if anything, delightfully misandrist. Moving on.

Beyond the big hits, the Dolly-lite ‘Slim Pickins’ and ‘Coincidence’ hammer home just how country some of her last album went, while the dramatic balladry of ‘Couldn’t Make It Any Harder’ gives Sabrina’s powerhouse pipes a chance to really shine. The setlist is exclusively ‘Short n’ Sweet’ tracks, save for a cover of ‘Hungry Like the Wolf’ with special guests Duran Duran (yes, really), and three songs from 2022’s ‘emails i can’t send’, the record that simmered before ‘Short n’ Sweet’ exploded. ‘because i liked a boy’ is transformed from downtrodden and defeated to a total triumph, complete with fireworks on the belting final notes. The ‘nonsense’ outro, once ever-changing in Sab’s first properly genius move, remains true to the recorded version, while ‘feather’ soars alongside newer material.

Staying true to her brand, Sabrina’s all about the big finish, running through slinky ‘Bed Chem’ (preceded by a cheeky ‘parental advisory’ warning) and flirty ‘Juno’. On the full arena tour, ‘Juno’ stood out as a the must-see moment, with Sab demonstrating a different sex position every night; that’s done away with now, instead, a camera pans to the audience to ‘arrest’ someone for ‘being too hot’. This time, it finds support act Clairo and Emmy-snagging actress Ayo Edebiri, who do Charli xcx’s viral ‘Apple’ dance in a hilarious bit. An extended firework-laden ‘Espresso’ closes out a euphoric 90 minutes on stage.

With her rise to superstardom coming so many years into her career, it’s easy to forget she spent years grafting in smaller venues, and of course found initial success with Disney, but it led to shows like these; impossibly slick without a hair falling out of place or a bum note hit. While some popsters end up thinking about their fame or how their relationship to it affects them, Sabrina Carpenter seems to love being a celebrity; and it makes her the natural heir to the pop queen throne. She’s so bloody effortlessly brilliant at it.