If you’ve been living anywhere other than under a rock this year, there’s a one hundred percent chance that you’ve heard of Sabrina Carpenter! In just a few short years, we’ve gotten to watch an artist we’ve loved for years blossom into a full-blown pop star, and 2025 was the biggest year of them all! From being on SNL, to winning big at the Grammys (and being nominated again) to releasing Man’s Best Friend, there was no stopping Sabrina Carpenter this year! When looking back at Sabrina’s list of accomplishments this year, we knew we had to break down some of the biggest and best for you!
Let’s jump in!
Man’s Best Friend
We say this with complete confidence, Man’s Best Friend is one of the best pop albums of the last decade! And we don’t even think that’s a hot take because we’ve watched the general public fall as in love with this record as we, career-long fans, have. The witty songwriting, the visual storytelling, the vocals, and the elements Sabrina continuously excels at are heightened even further here on this record. From ‘Manchild,’ which has been inescapable, to some of our favorites, ‘Go Go Juice,’ and ‘House Tour,’ there is no doubt in our mind that Man’s Best Friend will have a long, ever-evolving life with fans.
Grammy Awards
The Grammys are one of those accomplishments that artists spend their whole careers chasing, that hold meaning for their nominees, and for fans alike. At the 2025 Grammy Awards, Sabrina Carpenter took home two (!!!!) awards, and has already scored six nominations for the 2026 ceremony! That is the direct result of over a decade of hard work and dedication to mastering her craft.
Variety Hitmaker Of The Year
Much like the Grammy Awards, being named Hitmaker of the Year comes on the heels of hard work. What sets this honor apart is that being a “Hitmaker” in such a pop-saturated market takes a deep understanding of what a “pop” song entails, and how to catch lightning in a bottle time after time. From ‘Espresso’ and ‘Manchild’ to ‘Nonsense,’ Sabrina’s deep understanding of this concept just keeps growing.
Saturday Night Live
SNLis a true rite of passage for creatives throughout the entertainment industry, and Sabrina pulled off three appearances this year alone! And even more impressively, one of these appearances included the double duty of hosting and performing! These appearances reminded so many people that Sabrina is an actress! Her comedic timing is impeccable, and she also happens to have an incredible voice and is a master storyteller.
Check out more of our year-end/holiday content here!
We would love to hear from you! What was your favorite Sabrina Carpenter moment from 2025? Let us know by commenting below or by tweeting @TheHoneyPOP! We are also on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok!
“So I have this tradition when the eve before I have a new album that comes out that starts a new musical era, I listen to the entirety of the last album that I made. So I listened to Tortured Poets Department to say goodbye to it. I do it every time.”
It seems like such a small thing, but it’s actually brilliant. Because what Swift described isn’t just a quirky artist habit—it’s emotional intelligence in action.
Humans aren’t great at endings. We’re wired to hold on to the things in our lives—the people, projects, and past successes. We like the familiar because it makes us feel comfortable and safe. The truth, however, is that clinging to all of that is usually what keeps us from creating what’s next.
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Swift’s ritual is the opposite of that. Listening to her last album before releasing the next isn’t nostalgia—it’s closure. It’s her way of saying, “Thank you, I have to go do this new thing now.” It’s a small, intentional act that creates space for something new.
Swift cares deeply about what she makes
To be clear, I don’t think the point is that Swift is done with her past music; I mean, she pulled off the most successful concert tour in history by singing through her entire back catalog for three hours a night. This is someone who has deep feelings for the things she makes, and I think that’s the point.
I think this ritual is more about understanding exactly that. Swift cares deeply about the songs and albums she has made, and to “say goodbye” is the most respectful thing she can do. It also frees her to devote that space in her mind and heart to the next thing.
Think about that for a second. Before she hits play on her next era, she stops and honors the one before it. She doesn’t skip ahead or pretend it didn’t happen. She gives it a moment, acknowledges what it meant, and then lets it go.
That’s emotional intelligence—the ability to recognize and regulate emotions instead of being ruled by them. It’s self-awareness, discipline, and empathy all wrapped into one quiet act.
The weight of Tortured Poets Department
In this case, it’s especially useful. If you’ve followed Swift’s career, you know The Tortured Poets Department wasn’t just another album. It was a reflection of one of the most emotionally raw seasons of her life—a breakup, intense public scrutiny, and a level of pressure few humans could possibly understand.
It was also one of the most successful albums of all time. It sold more than 2.6 million units in its first week, broke vinyl sales records, and became one of the most-streamed albums ever. It was a massive creative and commercial high point.
That kind of success can be a trap. When you’ve built something that big, it’s easy to start believing the best thing you’ll ever do is the thing you already did. Most people in that position try to repeat themselves. Swift doesn’t. She listens one last time, says goodbye, and moves on.
That’s what makes this ritual so powerful. It’s a reminder that letting go isn’t weakness—it’s how you make room for whatever’s next.
The next era: ‘The Life of a Showgirl’
And Swift is going to need a lot of room for what comes next. The Life of a Showgirl, released October 3, is already breaking records. It sold more than 2.7 million copies in a single day, outpacing the first-week numbers for Tortured Poets Department. It broke every major streaming record and became Spotify’s most pre-saved album ever.
It also feels, in every way, like the next chapter (or Era, I guess we call them when referring to Taylor Swift). That kind of pivot doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when someone is intentional about closing one chapter before starting the next.
A lesson for us all
Look, the reality is that you don’t have to be a global pop star to learn something from this. In work, in relationships, in leadership—most of us are terrible at endings. We finish one project and immediately start the next without ever pausing to reflect. We hold on to titles, achievements, or mistakes that define us long after they should have.
But endings matter. They give meaning to what came before and make room for what’s next. Swift’s ritual is simple, but it’s an antidote to the human tendency to cling.
So maybe before you start your next big thing, take a page out of her book. Revisit what came before. Sit with it. Acknowledge it. Say goodbye. Because the truth is, you can’t start a new era if you’re still holding on to the last one.
Most of us could use more of that. We’d be less anxious about what’s next if we were more honest about what’s finished.
Swift’s ritual might sound like a superstition. It’s not. It’s an act of emotional discipline. It’s how you stay human in the middle of a machine that never stops moving. It’s how you give yourself permission to feel the full weight of an ending without getting stuck there.
At the end of the day, maybe that’s the real secret behind Taylor Swift’s longevity. She doesn’t just reinvent herself—she releases herself.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
In her 12th album, Taylor Swift reconnects with Max Martin and Shellback to sing about love, and fame
Taylor Swift accepts the Album Of The Year award for “Midnights” onstage during the 66th GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on February 04Credit: (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
Taylor Swift has officially entered her next era. As of 12 am EST this morning, Taylor Swift’s new album “The Life of a Showgirl” has officially dropped. With 12 songs and no bonus tracks as explicitly announced on her fiancé’s podcast, “New Heights”, this makes it Swift’s shortest album. The album cover and setlist were revealed on the show as well as posted to her Instagram on August 12. The cover art is a reference to Ophelia’s fate in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, with Swift posing in the water similar to paintings depicting Ophelia’s drowning. “The Life of a Showgirl” was inspired by her finishing every night of the Era’s Tour in a bathtub, she explained it “isn’t really about what happened to me on stage, it’s about what I was going through offstage”. This album marks the return of the producing duo Max Martin and Shellback who Swift has previously worked with on 1989 and Reputation along with some of the songs off her Red album.
Songs on the album range from celebration and joy to melancholy, reflective and angry. Notable songs from the album include, Father Figure which interpolates George Micheal’s song of the same title, and is seemingly about Swift’s relationship with Scott Borchetta, an executive for Big Machine Records who signed her to his record label in 2004 and worked with her on her first six albums after which he sold her masters, launching Swift’s release of her Taylor’s Version albums. Earlier this year, Swift was able to buy back her masters, which she explained the importance of in a letter to her fans on her website. Whereas Michael’s original song is about protection, Swift flips the script between Borchetta’s and her own point of view to explain the father figure as a betrayer.
In “Actually Romantic”, Swift seems to be throwing shade at Charli XCX who was an opener for Swift’s Reputation tour but has since shaded Swift mentioning in her song Sympathy is a Knife, “Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show/Fingers crossed behind my back/ I hope they break up quick” which many took to be in reference to Swift’s short lived relationship with Matty Healy who is in the same band as Charli’s husband. Swift’s Spotify canvas for this song features her holding an apple, which is the title of one of Charli XCX’s biggest songs off her Brat album. The promo for the Brat album included a picture of an amputated hand wearing friendship bracelets, which is a sign to many in the music universe of Swift fans due to their big use in the fandom, causing further speculation about the song’s subject. However, the song pokes fun at the feud, referring to it as a one-sided obsession that is actually romantic.
Another interesting song on the album is “CANCELLED,” which paints the narrative that Swift doesn’t care about the scandals her friends face, as she has also faced her fair share of hate, likely referring to the drama revolving around her and Kanye West in 2016, and will support them as they did her. Blake Lively seems the most likely subject of the song, as she is a close personal friend of Swift’s and has been around since 2016. Lively is currently involved in a lawsuit with co-star Justin Baldoni regarding workplace sexual harassment.
However, Lively is not the only friend facing backlash, as Swift herself faced backlash when she was seen hanging out with Brittany Mahomes, the wife of Patrick Mahomes and quarterback for Travis Kelce’s team, the Kansas City Chiefs. The concern revolves around Swift’s political beliefs, which are strongly Democratic, which most of her fans take after, and who find an issue with the fact that she seems to be close with Brittany Mahomes, who is a Republican. Brittany Mahomes is not well-liked by NFL fans for her online comments on gameplay and poor behavior regarding an incident where she sprayed champagne on opposing teams’ fans during a cold winter game.
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“Eldest Daughter” is a piano ballad that holds the fifth track spot on her album which has historically been reserved for some of Swift’s most gutwrenching songs such as “loml” from TTPD, “You’re On Your Own, Kid” off Midnights, Red’s “All Too Well”, and “The Archer” on Lover. This track is not as lyrically powerful as the others but talks about the pressures of public fame and being an eldest daughter to be perfect.
With Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s recent engagement it makes sense that most the songs are about their relationship like “Opalite” which is Kelce’s birthstone, “Wi$h Li$t” which talks about her want to start a family, “The Fate of Ophelia” where she writes that she was saved from the fate of Ophelia seemingly by her relationship with Travis Kelce. “Honey” and “Wood” are about how her relationship with Kelce has changed her view of the world, in that he has redefined words that people tended to use to talk down to Swift such as “honey” and “sweetheart” and that she is no longer worried about relationships failing to the point that she doesn’t even bother participating in superstitions such as knocking on wood because she knows the relationship will survive.
The ‘Life of a Showgirl” and “Elizabeth Taylor” explore her relationship with fame and how she looks to others to give her advice with the struggles. “Life of a Showgirl” features Sabrina Carpenter who opened 25 shows for Swift’s Eras Tour, and had her own album release earlier this year. They are close friends as she has gone to some of Kelce’s games with Swift, and is seen as Swift’s protege by some. The song itself starts with Swift trying to get advice from a prior showgirl and the candid response she receives about the negative sides of the business, as Swift knows these struggles first hand, she then hands the baton off to Sabrina Carpenter as the next showgirl, or big star. The end of the song has a snippet from the Eras Tour of Swift asking the fans to thank the band, the dancers and Carpenter, then expressing her love to the crowd, a message meant to include everyone listening to the album and her music.
Spotify announced earlier this week that “The Life of a Showgirl” was the most pre-saved album in the platform’s history with 5.5 million saves, which is no surprise as Swift’s last album, “The Tortured Poet’s Department,” sold 2.61 million units, with 1.9 million of those being physical sales. She similarly announced no less than 8 vinyl variants of the album as well as CDs and a cassette, featuring different covers with outfits designed by Bob Mackie, a fashion designer, who also dressed Elton John and Cher.
Keeping with her last several album rollouts, she released “The Life of a Showgirl” cardigans that kept with the color scheme of the album in a glittery burnt orange. Swift’s promotion of the album extends to the event, “The Life of a Showgirl Experience” put on by Spotify in New York, as well as the announcement of “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl” which is a movie being shown in theaters from October 3-5 featuring the music video and behind the scenes footage from “The Fate of Ophelia”, Swift’s explanations of what inspired the music, and new lyric videos from the album, and is expected to have a big box office. Only time will tell how successful this album is; however, it has been positively received thus far, now we must wait for the award shows.