“Please Please Please” is the second single from Sabrina Carpenter’s 2024 album ‘Short n’ Sweet.’ The song explores the singer’s perception of herself as she navigates through her relationship. Every time she puts herself on a pedestal, someone makes sure she steps off of it.
“Please Please Please” follows the lead single “Espresso” from Sabrina Carpenter’s sixth studio album ‘Short n’ Sweet.’ The single, released on June 6, 2024, became Sabrina’s highest charting song to date at #1 on Billboard Hot 100 Chart. The music video for “Please Please Please” amassed over 45 million views on YouTube in less than a month.
‘Please Please Please” is rumored to be about Sabrina’s boyfriend Barry Keoghan, an Irish actor. Sabrina Carpenter explores her feelings about self-love, and how every time she gets her hopes up, there’s someone around the corner to bring her down. And she knows that it’s only a matter of time before her partner does the same. She begs her lover not to prove her right.
Listen to “Please Please Please” by Sabrina Carpenter
Sabrina Carpenter “Please Please Please” Lyrics Meaning and Song Review
The beginning of the song shows us the singer trying to build herself up;
I know I have good judgment, I know I have good taste
You only need to recite this mantra if you have had bad judgment and bad taste before. However, she has been making good decisions lately, which includes her current partner as well. But life seems to be throwing curve balls at her recently she is beginning to doubt herself. She has been forgiving her partner’s mistakes telling herself that ‘everyone makes mistakes.’ Her friends have different opinions about her lover.
I heard that you’re an actor, so act like a stand-up guy
This line could infer that Sabrina is actually singing about her real-life partner Barry Keoghan, an Irish actor. She pleads him to act right for one night–which shouldn’t be that hard considering that he is an actor. But she has doubts he can pull it off, off-screen.
I beg you, don’t embarrass me
It’s hard to say what exactly made Sabrina feel this way about her partner. Maybe he is a socialite, too much of it. Maybe, he has a bad reputation to uphold. He might have cheated on her and she heard it on gossip tabloids. Whether these accusations are true or not, over time, each small wave weathers even the toughest stone.
In the second verse of the song, the singer playfully invites her partner to just stay home. It seems as if every time he goes outside, some news about him breaks out.
And we could live so happily if no one knows that you’re with me
This is a very serious statement. It sounds as if she is very unhappy in her relationship whenever they are in public. Trouble seems to gravitate towards him and then her. It is interesting that Sabrina does not mention that she is unhappy with her partner. She thinks they could live happily ever after if it were just them, in isolation. Add the rest of the world to the equation, trouble…trouble…trouble!
In the outro of the song, Sabrina Carpenter begs her partner to do whatever stupidity he wants when she is not with him. At least spare her the public humiliation on the spot. She will still recoil when she reads his stupid conquests on online tabloids.
Let us hear what you think about this song in the comments below. Read the complete lyrics to the song on Genius.