Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter: When Pop Star Princesses Feud
The Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter feud made every Gen Z a super sleuth trying to figure out which song from the pop stars was a dig at the other. Obviously, team Olivia fired the first “lyrical” missile with her hit song, “Driver’s License” (kind of the reason why she became big). But what inspired her to write a song with not-so subtle references to Carpenter?
Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter Feud Timeline
The Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter feud’s timeline is messy and complicated but we’ll try our best to address the drama in its entirety.
November 2020
Rodrigo released “driver’s license,” an ode to Joshua Bassett, her co-star in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series in November 2020. The pair dated from 2019-2020. After the breakup, Bassett moved on with Carpenter. It’s not clear whether the two relationships overlapped or Bassett dated Carpenter right after the breakup. But because of this love triangle, we got a heart-wrenching ballad.
Fans speculated the lines, “And you’re probably with that blonde girl/Who always made me doubt/She’s so much older than me/She’s everything I’m insecure about,” pertain to Carpenter who is obviously blonde and older than Rodrigo.
January 2021
By this time, Rodrigo’s “driver’s license” had already broken a lot of records and made her the youngest artist ever to debut atop the US Billboard Hot 100. Bassett and Carpenter responded with songs of their own, released mere days apart. Bassett released “Lie, Lie, Lie” on January 14, 2021, while Carpenter released “Skin” on January 21, 2021. Strike while the iron is hot, am I right?
Bassett, however, posted in his Instagram stories (via US Weekly) that the song was about a friend. “I wrote ‘Lie, Lie, Lie’ after I found out a friend had been lying about me behind my back for a long time. It always sucks to hear that someone you thought you could trust would throw you under the bus when it benefits them.” With lines like, “So they told me all the things that you said/Runnin’ all over my name, oh/And you’re acting, oh, so innocent/Like I’m the only one to blame,” he’s not fooling anyone when he denies that it’s about Rodrigo.
Carpenter’s “Skin” seemed to be more direct, “Maybe we could’ve been friends/If I met you in another life/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.”
April 2021
Rodrigo released the follow up to “driver’s license,” “deja vu,” and in an interview with American Songwriter (via Seventeen) explained that the song is a “relatable, universal thing” and anyone who’s in a new relationship can relate. “I thought it’d be interesting to write a song, using deja vu, about how sometimes when somebody moves on in a relationship and they get with a new partner, you watch it and you’re like, ‘oh my gosh, that was all of the stuff that I did.’”
Yeah, Olivia: no, it’s not “universal,” since not all of us can date “another actress,” as the lyrics suggest. “Do you call her, almost say my name?/’Cause let’s be honest, we kinda do sound the same/Another actress/I hate to think that I was just your type.”
Surprise, surprise, Carpenter is also an actress.
July 2022
Carpenter released her fifth studio album, Emails I Can’t Send, in July 2022, including the track “Because I Liked a Boy,” with the chorus: “Now I’m a homewrecker, I’m a slut/I got death threats fillin’ up semitrucks/Tell me who I am, guess I don’t have a choice/All because I liked/I’m the hot topic on your tongue/I’m a rebound gettin’ ’round stealin’ from the young/Tell me who I am, guess I don’t have a choice/All because I liked a boy.” It seemed to be hinting about how she was portrayed as the villain in the Rodrigo-Bassett-Carpenter love triangle.
Current Status (2024)
Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter are thriving and seemingly moved on from the feud. Rodrigo recently wrapped up her Guts World Tour and is set to headline her biggest UK performance yet at the BST Hyde Park Show on June 27, 2025. Meanwhile, Carpenter, after opening for Taylor Swift’s 2023 Eras tour, has seen great success with her sixth album Short n’ Sweet, which includes the Billboard Global 200 number one singles “Espresso” and “Please Please Please.”
As for Bassett, his biggest claim to fame might be sparking one of the most talked-about feuds in pop history—an impressive feat, considering he’s no Zac Efron.
