Babydoll dresses, sparkles and loud cheers filled Madison Square Garden (MSG) as Sabrina Carpenter continued the final leg of her “Short n’ Sweet:” tour playing MSG five times from Oct. 26 to Saturday, Nov. 1.
Starting back up in Pittsburgh on Oct. 23, the tour will officially end on Sunday, Nov. 23, in Los Angeles with stops in Nashville, Tennessee and Toronto, Canada, in between. I was fortunate enough to attend the second New York City date, and it was everything and more.
Taking over both the arena and the city, Carpenter now joins artists like Taylor Swift and Harry Styles who have headlined the arena for multiple sold-out nights. Fans were decked out in pastel colors, outfits from Carpenter’s career and music videos and other creative forms of celebrating a night they will never forget.
In between the two tour legs, Carpenter released “Man’s Best Friend.” The new album gets some love with “Manchild,” “Tears” and “House Tour” being added onto the setlist for the last leg. She has also performed some of the other songs from the album like “Go Go Juice” and “Nobody’s Son” during her surprise song set where she plays spin the bottle to decide which song she’ll play.
The tour openers, Amber Mark and Olivia Dean, do a spectacular job of getting people out of their seats and dancing before Carpenter comes on.
During the second night, Carpenter stunned in her first outfit of three: a black bodysuit with shimmery white polka-dots and white lace. Her second outfit of the night was a lacy black cat suit with a golden bow. My personal favorite was her third outfit of the night, a glittery yellow top and skirt that was outlined at the hems with a checkered pattern, resembling a taxicab.
One of the most memorable, impromptu moments of the second night happened when she was preparing to play spin the bottle. Carpenter asked the crowd what they should play and a fan yelled out “spin the bottle” to which Carpenter burst out in laughter and started having a conversation with the fan. The fan then asked Carpenter to perform her song “My Man on Willpower” to which she jokingly replied, “Well it’s not spin the bottle if you pick the song.”
The surprise song for the second night ended up being “Mamma Mia,” which Carpenter has performed multiple times. As a fan of “Mamma Mia,” I could not contain my excitement. Something that is fun and different during this part of the show is that the lyrics for the song appear on the screen – making it feel like a super-sized karaoke party.
For Halloween, Carpenter renamed the show “Short n’ Spooky.” She dressed up in three costumes and had the stage designed with webs, fake spiders and more. This year, she dressed up as Wonder Woman, Western Barbie from the 2024 movie and Fred Flintstone. Adding some giggles and cheers, her “Juno” position – a tradition that goes with the song’s question of “Have you ever tried this one?” – was her holding a bone while dressed in her “Flintstones” costume. Her surprise song for the night complimented her Barbie costume as she performed “Barbie Girl” by Aqua.
These five sold-out nights at MSG, compared to the original leg where there was only one MSG show, highlight how her popularity isn’t going anywhere any time soon. Whether it is her joking around with fans, showing off a new position or turning a holiday like Halloween into a show-stopping night, Carpenter has proven that her stage performance is unmatched.
