Sabrina Carpenter is paying homage to the pop mothers who came before her.
For her highly anticipated performance at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards, pop sensation Sabrina Carpenter sang a mashup of three of her summer-defining smash hits: “Please Please Please,” “Taste,” and of course, “Espresso.” To kick off the performance, Carpenter graced our screens while sitting pretty on a glitter-encrusted swing, hanging from the ceiling of New York’s UBS Arena—which immediately brought to mind a young Britney Spears in the 2000 video for “Lucky.” The references didn’t stop there, however, as during her time onstage, Carpenter also played a monologue snippet from Spears’s “Oops! … I Did It Again” and cheekily made out with an alien dancer, referencing Britney’s controversial kiss with Madonna in 2003.
Before gracing the VMAs stage, Carpenter appeared on the red carpet in a vintage sequined Bob Mackie number paying respect to another pop icon, Madonna. The gorgeous dress was originally worn by the Material Girl in 1991 at that year’s Grammy Awards—when, notably, fellow pop legend Michael Jackson attended as her date. Carpenter’s glam referenced Madonna as well, with bouncy curls and classic, Old Hollywood–inspired makeup.
Carpenter was recently named the official face of Redken hair care, and recently spoke with Harper’s Bazaar about how she maintains her enviable locks, and whether she’d ever deviate from her signature blonde tresses.
“Is this my signature hairstyle and color? It’s definitely what I’ve been loving and feeling most myself right now,” she said. “I’m loving my blonde color and bouncy bangs, but maybe I’ll change it up someday—you never know.”
Bianca Betancourt is the culture editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com, where she covers all things film, TV, music, and more. When she's not writing, she loves impulsively baking a batch of cookies, re-listening to the same early-2000s pop playlist, and stalking Mariah Carey's Twitter feed.
