Sabrina Carpenter Addresses Complaints About Her ‘Espresso’ Lyrics While Trying Not to Scream on ‘Hot Ones’

Sabrina Carpenter is no stranger to spiciness in her lyrics, but in her chicken wings? She doesn’t fare quite as well.  

On the latest episode of First We Feast’s Hot Ones Thursday (July 11), the 25-year-old pop star answered questions about her skyrocketing career while eating hot chicken wings with host Sean Evans, and trying not to succumb to spice overload. Before the Scoville levels got too overwhelming, Carpenter addressed complaints about her Billboard Hot 100 top five hit “Espresso,” the main hook of which earned a barrage of memes when the track first dropped in April thanks to its slightly clunky syntax: “That’s that me espresso.” 

“So much of what I like is the punchline,” the singer told Evans. “If people don’t know the punchline, it’s like, waste. That’s how I feel about ‘me espresso.’ I’ve heard a lot of people that were like, ‘She should’ve said, That’s that blonde espresso, duh.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, yes. That is another song as well that deserves its spot in the world, but this one for me … ‘me espresso’ just felt like the right thing to say, and it rhymes with the line before it.” 

“I just think it’s so funny,” she continued, shrugging. “Maybe everyone’s right.” 

The “Please Please Please” artist also opened up about how the success of her Emails I Can’t Send single “Nonsense” — which she almost always performs with an NSFW improvised outro tacked on at the end — has given her confidence before putting her love of The Beatles to work in a round of trivia. It was shortly after Evans asked Carpenter about her affinity for covering other artists’ songs during her live shows, however, that things started getting a little dicey. 

“That was so crazy … You just want to scream,” she exclaimed, exhaling heavy sighs while trying not to yell. She tried to hold it in, but just a few seconds later, she let out a loud, pained, “Oh my god!”  

“It’s really, really hot,” she added with tears in her eyes. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. Has anyone ever sued you?” 

The episode comes about a month and a half ahead of Carpenter’s sixth studio album, Short N’ Sweet, which drops Aug. 23. “Notice I didn’t call it Short N’ Spicy because I like sweet things better,” she quipped through tears at the very end of the interview. 

Watch Carpenter on Hot Ones above.