Last Friday, Sabrina Carpenter released her first song of the year, ‘Skin’. After listening to the lyrics, fans thought that her single was in response to Olivia Rodrigo’s hit song ‘drivers license.’
Diving Into ‘Skin’ and ‘drivers license’
In ‘drivers license,’ Olivia sings about a boy who she dated is now dating someone else, who is a blonde. This clearly can lead to thinking that Sabrina is the person she’s talking about. (After all, both Olivia and Sabrina have been linked to having dated the same boy, Joshua Bassett.) Well, Sabrina has now responded with this beautiful ballad.
In ‘Skin,’ we can hear Sabrina singing “Maybe then we could pretend / There’s no gravity in the words we write / Maybe you didn’t mean it / Maybe “blonde” was the only rhyme”. This line specifically was the one that triggered fans. In ‘drivers license,’ Olivia sings “And you’re probably with that blonde girl / Who always made me doubt”. Fans were quick to notice that in earlier versions of “drivers license”, Olivia’s lyrics originally referenced a “brunette girl”, aligning with the fact that Carpenter is a natural brunette. Fans also commented that “blonde girl” seemed to fit the rhyme and flow of the song better. Sabrina’s tone is dismissive of this as if Olivia only included “blonde” for songwriting reasons, not as a personal shot.
Sabrina Clarified the Situation
A few days ago, Sabrina took over to Instagram to thank the public for listening to her song. “Thank you to everyone who has listened to skin 🤍 especially those who have opened their minds to lyrically what i was trying to get across. I wasn’t bothered by a few lines in a (magnificent) song and wrote a diss track about it. I was at a tipping point in my life for countless reasons. So i was inspired to do what i usually do to cope, write something that i wish i could have told myself in the past.”
She continued, “People can only get to you if you give them the power to. And a lot of people were trying to get to me. the song isn’t calling out one single person. Some lines address a specific situation, while other lines address plenty of other experiences I’ve had this past year.. It also shows that many things have actually gotten under my skin.. and I’m still learning to not give other people so much power over my feelings. I know a lot of you struggle with the same thing. I don’t want this to become an endless cycle so please don’t take this as an opportunity to send more hate anyone’s way. Lots of love to u all. thanks for letting me grow.”
