Sabrina Carpenter has a brand new song for you, her first in 2021, and with this, a certain love triangle comes to a completion. The new song, titled “Skin,” seems to talk about a girl who is upset about the guy Sabrina is with right now.
And this sounds way too similar to the story told by Olivia Rodrigo in her massive hit “Drivers License” releases just last week. In Olivia’s song, she sings about how she waited so long to get her driver’s license so that she could drive to her boyfriend’s house and ride around the town with him. However, a certain ‘blonde’ girl seemed to have come between the two, and she had to drive around town by herself.
Translating all this to the real world, it was rumored that Olivia Rodrigo and ‘High School Musical’ co-star Joshua Bassett were dating during the filming of the show in 2019. It was also rumored that they called it quits in early 2020. In July 2020, Joshua and singer Sabrina Carpenter were spotted together, sparking dating rumors. Sabrina Carpenter has blonde hair and is older than Olivia.
Just at the perfect time, Joshua Bassett, too, released a song titled “Lie Lie Lie” last week, seemingly confronting an ex-girlfriend who lies about their breakup and manipulates the people around her to win their sympathy.
Hence, with all three people relating to this love-triangle releasing songs, we have a complete circle in the storylines.
Listen to “Skin” by Sabrina Carpenter
“Skin” Lyrics Meaning and Song Review
Verse 1
In the first verse of the song, Sabrina sings that things could have been different between her and this other girl if she did not decide to publicize their personal life to the song. Not surprisingly, Olivia Rodrigo’s song “Drivers License” has been a stellar success, becoming the fastest song to reach 100 million streams in Spotify history, and got praised by Taylor Swift too. So, the song is definitely heard and re-heard around the world. And anybody who knows about the rumors around Olivia-Joshua-Sabrina knows that the song is about them.
Sabrina Carpenter sings that the words you put out have ‘weight’ to them. She specifically mentions the term “blonde” which Olivia Rodrigo used in her song to reference Sabrina Carpenter. She wishes Olivia used the word ‘blonde’ just to rhyme the song and not to drag Sabrina into the song. But, it’s not so, and it’s clear that Olivia wanted the world to know what was going on.
Pre-chorus
Sabrina Carpenter asks Olivia why does she have to go about making things worse for all of them?! Obviously, now half the world knows about their private lives, which is not something a celebrity wants to achieve. Now their private lives are under the spotlight, and there is a high chance that paparazzi will not leave Sabrina and Joshua Bassett alone on a date hereafter.
Sabrina also says that Olivia only spoke about her side of the story in “Drivers License,” which is not exactly lying, but can be classified as manipulation.
Chorus
In the chorus of the song, Sabrina Carpenter sings that Olivia can try to get under her skin with her song, but she will not let her do that. But, Sabrina already released a song, so we are not so sure if Sabrina is not affected.
However, Sabrina Carpenter does not back away from rubbing the fact that she is having some fun physical activities with Joshua Bassett;
You can try
To get under my, under my, under my skin
While hе’s on mine
Verse 2
Sabrina Carpenter is actually savage in this verse. She not only claims that Olivia Rodrigo is manipulating the truth about her ex-boyfriend. Sabrina also says that Olivia leveraged a very private part of their lives to gain the spotlight on her. Sabrina says that Olivia might be enjoying her newfound spotlight on top of the charts with her debut single, but Sabrina has been under the spotlight her whole life–long before Olivia had any.
Bridge
One clear connection to Olivia’s song is when Sabrina Carpenter sings “Don’t drive yourself insane / It won’t always be this way.” While ‘driving’ yourself insane is a state of mind, it is a clear link to Olivia’s song which is based on her wish to drive around town with her boyfriend.
Sabrina does not wish bad upon Olivia Rodrigo for that song. She only says that these emotions that are driving her insane right now, will fade away. And one day, Sabrina hopes that they can look back and laugh at this situation.
But one thing we all know for sure is that neither of their lives will ever be the same, again!
Let us hear what you think about this song and the previous songs associated with it in the comments below. Check out the complete lyrics on Genius.
Watch the official music video below;