When Sabrina Carpenter unveiled the cover this past summer for her latest album, Man’s Best Friend , she got a lot of attention — and not in a good way. Depicting the pop star on her knees in a dog-like pose while her hair is presumably being pulled by a male, the cover caused a stir on social media for what many felt looked like objectification. In response, Carpenter released an alternative cover but defended the image as satire.

Ironically, the controversy arose just as the Recording Academy decided to put the spotlight on album cover art again. On June 12, just a day after Carpenter’s cover was revealed, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. announced that the 2026 Grammys would give an award for best album cover as a stand-alone category, something it hasn’t done since 1973. T

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