Framed by a huge heart-shaped mirror, Sabrina Carpenter steps into the spotlight of Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom. The crowd is instantly excited, screaming and cheering, which isn’t surprising given the queues outside that snaked throughout the whole Barras market. It is a swelteringly hot day outside and inside the ballroom, but nothing can stop the buzz of this crowd.
“Back then I didn’t know who I was, not even in the slightest”, the star remarks about her previous UK tour. She has clearly reinvented herself and is ready to shine under a new light. Last year’s ‘Emails I Can’t Send’ is her fifth album and makes up the majority of the setlist, as Sabrina hardly touches her previous material. Her new songs aren’t a massive departure in style – Carpenter’s pop keeps its blend of R&B, acoustic, and country – but you can tell know that she feels far greater ownership over them.
‘Read Your Mind’ and ‘Vicious’ were standout tracks from the beginning, as the crowd sang every lyric back to Sabrina. ‘Fast Times’, a soft-rock track about pressing fast-forward on a relationship, is another standout as her four-piece touring band maximise its sound. Carpenter let out a shriek of infectious joy that felt straight from the heart.
Donning a feather-lined cowboy hat, matching many of us in the crowd, she is a star for this generation, who is also influenced by past eras, such as Dolly Parton kitsch. You can tell the singer is having as much fun on stage as we were in the crowd, even taking part in an agony aunt session and helping us solve our life dilemmas. I have enjoyed many gigs in the Barrowlands, but a definite highlight was seeing the ballroom filled with young people, dressed in sequins, feather boas and cowboy hats, all ready for a boogie and a good time. Pop music is often wrongly underappreciated and looked down upon, but you cannot deny the fun that is had when listening and dancing along to it.
After the encore and the famous ‘Here we f**king go’ and ‘No Scotland, No Party’ chants (seemed the language barrier got in the way of the American singers understanding), the crowd was obviously buzzing about what the ‘Nonsense’ outro will be. If you haven’t seen it on your TikTok fyp, Sabrina changes the lyrics to the song ‘Nonsense’ to fit and rhyme with the city she is performing in. The crowd excitedly awaited their turn to be included in the viral videos and were not disappointed, our outro was “He said that I’m hotter than Tabasco/ I’m just a pint away from shake my ass mode / I recycle baby, where’s the Glasgow?”. You see what she’s doing there, she has a lot of fun with it and the crowd clearly love it.
The gig ended with the famous track ‘because I liked a boy’ which was Sabrina’s response to the Olivia Rodrigo/Joshua Bassett ‘drama’. The crowd joined together, singing ‘I’m a homewrecker/ I’m a slut/ I’ve got death threats filling up semi-trucks”, clearly relating to the lyrics and finding solace in screaming them at the top of their lungs. Alongside her merchandise, which consisted of t-shirts with ‘I <3 sluts’ embellished on, the popstar seems to be encouraging the young woman of today to reclaim these words often used against us, creating a group of girls confident in themselves and their ability to stand up against misogyny and hatred.
I left the Barrowland Ballroom that night still dancing and singing with the crowd all down Argyle Street. It is clear that Sabrina Carpenter made an impact on all of us, and I am so happy I got to experience the ‘emails I can’t send’ tour. The pop girlies really are taking over and I 100% support it. Long may it continue.