MUMBAI: Sabrina Carpenter is remaining tight-lipped on the drama surrounding her new song “Skin.”
While James Corden tried to get her to spill the tea during her Feb. 9 appearance on The Late Late Show, the 21-year-old singer didn’t divulge any specific details.
The host tried to solve the mystery by asking her about the “controversy” surrounding the song, which fans have assumed is a response to Olivia Rodrigo’s hit “driver’s license.” However, Carpenter seemingly dodged the question by focusing on Corden’s pronunciation of “controversy.”
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“I just love how you say ‘controversy,'” she said. “I’m sorry. I’ve never heard anyone say it like that.”
But Corden didn’t give up that easily and asked again, explaining he didn’t understand why people couldn’t stop talking about the tune. Still, Carpenter seemed like she just wanted to move on, replying, “Yeah if you don’t understand it, then you just go with whatever your gut is.”
After Corden continued to grill the star, she finally gave an answer.
“I genuinely was coming from a place as a 21-year-old that is navigating her feelings and was going through a lot in my personal life,” she said. “And the reoccurring theme was that I was allowing people to get under my skin. So, I wrote from that place of knowing that there’s so many different experiences that will continue to happen to me in my life where I kind of have to remind myself that people can only get to you if you allow them to and you give them that access to.”
Although, it didn’t seem to be the answer Corden was looking for as he told Carpenter her response “skirted around the controversy.”
“No, I haven’t skirted around it,” she replied. “I think it’s more the fact that…people will make a narrative out of something always. And I think this was, like, a really interesting song for people to kind of misinterpret and make it into something that it wasn’t really supposed to be in the first place. But I’ve just been enjoying making music.”
For those who need a refresher, Rodrigo dropped “driver’s license” in early January. The single was about a breakup, and many listeners assumed it referenced a rumored love triangle involving her, Joshua Bassett and Carpenter.
Rodrigo and Bassett, who play lovers in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, previously sparked off-camera romance rumors. And when Rodrigo mentioned a “failed” relationship in an August TikTok video, followers speculated the co-stars split. Then, in November, Bassett and Carpenter appeared in a TikTok video together. So when Rodrigo sang, “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” in “driver’s license,” fans began to wonder if she was referencing Carpenter. Although, Rodrigo hasn’t confirmed any theories.
“I totally understand people’s curiosity with the specifics of who the song’s about and what it’s about, but to me, that’s really the least important part of the song,” the 17-year-old actress told Billboard in January. “It’s resonating with people because of how emotional it is, and I think everything else is not important.”
