Sabrina Carpenter recently released the song "Skin," and many believe it's in response to Olivia Rodrigo's song "drivers license."
For reference for those of you who have been living under a rock away from all social media, on Jan. 8, Rodrigo released the song "drivers license." The song was about her recent breakup with Joshua Bassett.
Although it's unclear exactly what went down between the two, what it seems like is essentially Rodrigo and Bassett were romantic in some way until he started hooking up with Carpenter.
Rodrigo was heartbroken from the breakup, as well as how quickly Bassett moved on. This prompted her to write the song "drivers license." The song is honestly heartbreaking in itself. Rodrigo sings lyrics such as, "cause how could I ever love someone else?" Followed by, "And I know we weren't perfect but I've never felt this was for no one. And I just can't imagine how you could be so okay now that I'm gone."
And of course, she sang the infamous lyric, "And you're probably with that blonde girl, who always made me doubt. She's so much older than me, she's everything I'm insecure about," referring to Carpenter.
Fans quickly deduced that the song was about Carpenter, and so did the entire internet once Rodrigo's song blew up across all social media platforms, and skyrocketed to the top of the charts.
Carpenter then wrote the song "Skin" in response to Rodrigo, starting the song off with the lyrics, "Maybe we could've been friends, if I met you in another life. Maybe we could pretend there's no gravity in the words we write. Maybe you didn't mean it. Maybe blonde was the only rhyme."
The last lyric there directly calls out Rodrigo's song and her lyric, "you're probably with that blonde girl," and so on. This immediately signaled to listeners that the song was about Rodrigo. However, the song goes on to say some things that are less than humble, and really don't make it seem like Carpenter wanted to be friends with Rodrigo.
Carpenter continues with the lyrics, I'm happy and you hate it, hate it," shortly after followed by, "But you been tellin' your side, so I'll be telling mine."
Then to the chorus where Carpenter gets really petty towards Rodrigo with the lyrics, "You can try, to get under my, under my, under my skin, while he's on mine. Yeah, all on my, all on my, all on my skin." Basically saying to Rodrigo, "Aww you're sad about your breakup with your first love? Yeah well, I'm fucking him now so get over it.
There's so many issues here with the song by Carpenter and how she handled the whole situation entirely.
First of all, Rodrigo never said a mean thing about Carpenter in her song. In fact, as mentioned before, Rodrigo said that Carpenter is everything she's insecure about. Rodrigo isn't making a mean song about Carpenter or even Bassett. She was a 17-year-old girl going through her first heartbreak with her first love and dealing with it the only way she knew how to.
Subversly, Carpenter is a 21 (almost 22) year old woman who basically just made a song bullying a teenager, and rubbing the salt in the wound.
I understand that 21 is still a pretty young age, but she's 4 years older than Rodrigo. She's had much more life experiences. She's been through heartbreak and she knows how it is. She knows how painful the entire experience is, and as an artist, she knows that putting your feelings into your work is a good way to work through them. But despite all of this, she decided to be petty and write this awful song making fun of a 17-year-old girl.
I think Olivia Rodrigo's song was absolutely amazing. It was heartbreaking and beautiful. Sabrina Carpenter's song on the other hand? Embarrassing.