Sabrina Carpenter, fresh off the North American leg of her first-ever arena tour, is now accustomed to playing 20,000-seat concert halls. But at NPR’s offices in Washington, D.C., the short and sweet pop star finally found a venue that’s just her size.
On a Monday in early December, Billboard was on hand to watch Carpenter make her Tiny Desk debut — which dropped at noon ET Friday (Dec. 20) — getting to see the singer-actress perform just five feet away (one of her, more or less) at a point in her career where such opportunities are increasingly rare. Her star has exploded over the course of 2024, beginning with her stint as an opener on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and followed by the runaway success of smash hit “Espresso,” the chart reign of Billboard Hot 100-topper “Please Please Please” and the Billboard 200 takeover of sixth studio LP, Short n’ Sweet, which spent its first four weeks at No. 1. With that in mind, the sense that one of the world’s most in-demand pop stars was in the building was palpable as NPR’s guest audience members piled into the office space that day, excited gasps erupting across the room when a staff member accidentally confirmed the identity of the not-so-top-secret performer while reminding people not to take photos during the show.
Moments later, Carpenter made her entrance and proceeded to play five songs from Short n’ Sweet, opening with “Taste” and weaving her way through “Bed Chem,” “Please Please Please,” “Espresso,” “Slim Pickins” and, finally, “Juno.” In between, she treated the crowd to her famous banter and some stories about how a few of the songs came to be, including how an innocent hotel sleepover with her best friend Paloma was the surprisingly non-“explicitly horny” inspiration behind “Bed Chem,” and the natural progression of “Espresso” from spontaneous songwriting session with friends to Grammy-nominated song of the summer.
All is captured in the video posted to NPR’s YouTube channel, which you can check out above. But beyond that, keep reading as Billboard reveals a few things you didn’t see on camera at the star’s perfectly sized Desk performance.
