Sabrina Carpenter review: A pitch-perfect night of risqué fun at 3Arena in Dublin
A file picture of Sabrina Carpenter, who played the first of two gigs at 3Arena in Dublin on Monday. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for MTV)
★★★★☆
Before Sabrina Carpenter launches into one of her more suggestive songs of the night in Dublin, a warning flashes up on the screen: ‘Parental discretion is advised’.
- rumoured to be about Dublin’s own Barry Keoghan - got its television premiere earlier this week at the BRIT awards and left some so outraged they were threatening to contact the broadcast regulator.
For parents of small kids attending the second of two sold-out gigs on Tuesday, all we can say is, you’ve been warned.
With her bouffant curls and thigh-high stockings, Carpenter evokes a Hollywood star of a bygone era, complete with a 1970s-style stage set-up that feels like her very own Barbie dreamhouse. But the US star's full embrace of her sexual wants, needs and desires is firmly that of the 21st-century popstar.
On Monday night, the Polly Pocket-sized star zipped through makeshift bedrooms and bathrooms in a range of outfits from an emerald green bodysuit to a lace catsuit, with the cheekiest of her often explicit lyrics prompting giggles and blushes as a crowd of mostly girls and women decked out in their own lingerie and bows sang along to every word.
Part of a Disney cohort that includes fellow Gen Z superstar Olivia Rodrigo, her latest album - Grammy award-winning Short n Sweet - is actually her sixth studio release. Having brought in producer Jack Antonoff, known as Taylor Swift’s right-hand man and a choice producer of Lana Del Rey and Lorde, the album’s singles and were completely unavoidable this summer. The question, of course, was whether 25-year-old Carpenter could live up to the hype live. On Monday, she proved there was no need to doubt.
Carpenter is a stand-out vocalist, as comfortable slotting into choreography with her dancers as she is delivering soprano runs. But her pièce de résistance? Her sense of humour.
Where she isn't lurid and explicit (on she simply states "I am so fucking horny"), every other lyric seems to be an innuendo delivered with a wink. And in Dublin, ex-boyfriend Keoghan's hometown, we are all waiting to see if there'd be any cheeky reference to the star. As the starting notes of begin, widely presumed to be about Keoghan, she delivers. "This one's for you Dublin," she says, winking.
The first night back on tour after the American leg ended last year, the setlist has been updated with some of the recently-released new tracks for the deluxe edition of On where she promises 'I can do a lot with fifteen minutes / only gonna take two to make you finish' the lyrics flash up on screen karaoke-style just in case you haven't learned them yet. No need, the audience sang along as passionately to that one as every other from her discography.
For the younger audience in attendance, it's safe to say there's nothing subtle about a show that puts horniness on a pedestal. Asked about her titillating stage presence, Carpenter has said, “People think I'm just obnoxiously horny when in reality, writing [sexual lyrics] comes from the ability to not be fearful of your sexuality."
Perhaps what is most unique about Carpenter is despite how obviously she is performing, it doesn't feel performative. It feels like a woman who is just owning the hedonistic side of being young and horny. And how fun is that?
