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Sabrina Carpenter has given a Kiwi broadcaster insight into the making of her racy new album cover.
In an appearance on Zane Lowe’s Apple Music 1 show, the pint-sized pop star commented on the controversy around the cover of Man’s Best Friend, the album she released last week.
While Carpentersaid her loved ones thought the cover was “perfect”, the record’s imagery was widely criticised in June for its provocative depiction of sexual dynamics.
The former Disney star is pictured on her hands and knees while a faceless man grips her long blonde hair like a leash – a purported reference to the album’s canine-themed title.
Carpenter confessed to Lowe that the final product was actually somewhat of an accident.
She said the “airy and playful” shot was meant to show a man playing with her hair, a cheeky nod to the album’s raunchy exploration of gender roles.
“I got myself here, here I am, this is someone I love, but also someone that emotionally can be doing a lot with my heart and doing a lot with my emotions.”
But she said that none of the five or so men who worked on the shoot seemed to be comfortable touching her hair the way she wanted them to.
“They were all pulling it. They were all nervous to be holding my hair.”
The selected shot was the only one she felt showed she was “clearly in control” despite her seemingly submissive pose.
Sabrina Carpenter's ‘Man’s Best Friend’ album cover. Photo / Instagram
Calling the cover “so special”, there was no indication the 26-year-old had any regrets about the contentious photo.
Carpenter told Lowe she tends to offend a particular generation who feel she is “not allowed to have sex”.
She also said Man’s Best Friend “feels very reflective of this time in my life where you don’t really have a lot of time to sort of mope and weep”.
The characteristically smutty album is loaded with lusty wordplay, exploring themes of power and heartbreak.
“There’s so many reasons why I called it Man’s Best Friend, and there’s so many layers in the experiences that I was going through at the time where, emotionally, I felt like one”, she told Interview.
“I do feel like submission is both dominant and submissive,” she said, going on to say of the cover, “the image, the way I see it, is a metaphor, but I’m sure that other people are like, ‘Dang, she’s a sub?’”
At other points in the interview with Lowe, Carpenter seemed to reference the end of her relationship with actor Barry Keoghan, describing the album as the product of a “newer heartbreak experience”.
The pair broke up in December 2024, after Keoghan famously featured in the music video for her track Please, Please, Please.
