Sabrina Carpenter at Variety Hitmakers 2025, sponsored by TikTok, on Dec. 6, 2025, in Los Angeles.
Sabrina Carpenter speaks onstage at Variety Hitmakers 2025 on December 06, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.

LOS ANGELES − From the viral "Espresso" to "Please Please Please," 26-year-old singer Sabrina Carpenter has mastered the art of writing a hit song after nearly a decade of feeling "the literal opposite of a hitmaker."

The "Short 'n Sweet" artist accepted Variety's Hitmaker of the Year award at Hollywood's Nya Studios on Saturday, Dec. 6, and during her speech, explained having to channel her inner child while writing the Billboard charting and Grammy-nominated tracks like "Manchild."

"When I started writing songs, I was 10 years old. And when you're 10, you don't really think about perception or reception. You're just like, 'This sounds good. I like this. I'm brilliant.' Because I'm 10," Carpenter said onstage. "And I think going down the rabbit hole of forgetting that essence is probably where I went wrong for a few years of my life."

The former Disney Channel star said her record label, which she signed with at 12, pressured her to write a hit song to jumpstart her music career, but Carpenter called it "no way to approach creativity."

Instead of worrying about whether one or a million people will like her music, Carpenter urged songwriters and artists in the audience to first think about whether they like it themselves and if it feels authentic.

"The easiest way to write a bad song is to try to write a hit," she said.

Sabrina Carpenter at Variety Hitmakers: 'Write the music you want to listen to yourself'

Carpenter's secret, instead, is to "write the opposite of what you think a hit is."

"Write what speaks to you, write something that only you can write," she said during her speech Saturday. "Write the music you want to listen to yourself. Add the weird chord progression and key change, and call men stupid in as many ways as you can."

Carpenter added that the success of her breakthrough song "Espresso" aligned with the stars, and that she had to create every type of song possible before crafting something like that.

"To me, a hit song is pretty lonely and lacks context without the world of music around it," she continued. "And I'm very in love with my world of songs that I'm so lucky to create."

Variety's 9th annual Hitmakers brunch was a star-studded gathering of Grammy-nominated artists, producers, publishers, managers and executives behind the 25 most-consumed songs of the year.

Other honorees included Rosé, Tyler, the Creator, Megan Moroney, BigXThaPlug, Fuerza Regida, Addison Rae, Tate McRae, Buddy Guy, Alex Warren, the Marías, Mustard, and Jack Antonoff, to name a few.

Jack Antonoff jokes Sabrina Carpenter is immortal

At the Variety Hitmakers event, producer Jack Antonoff presented the award to his friend and collaborator, gushing about her "amazing artistic spirit."

Along with more heartfelt praises about her passion and talent as a songwriter and performer, the "Bleachers" frontman joked to the crowd of musicians that they should be grateful Carpenter will outlive most people because of her height.

"There is firm scientific proof that short people live longer because of blood flow and mechanics and heart pumping shorter distances," Antaonoff said, poking fun at Carpenter's 5-foot height. "How lucky are we that one of our true greats will probably live longer because of shortness?"

Antonoff continued to sing his friend's praises, noting that seven albums into her career, Carpenter was thriving more than ever as a pop star.

He said Carpenter never stops challenging herself, and it still amazes him that "she can write like that."

"And I think the combination of her amazing artistic spirit and her incredible writing and the fact that she's made for this …," he said. "I know Sabrina well, and I think she's truly happiest in the studio writing music, performing for people and using her voice."

He concluded: "That's all that matters here, and I have a couple of other short jokes, but I think I want to end it on sincerity."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sabrina Carpenter felt the 'literal opposite of a hitmaker' before 'Espresso'

Reporting by Anthony Robledo, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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