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Sabrina Carpenter and Jenna Ortega fight to the near-death over a shared lover in the singer’s gory new music video for “Taste,” the opening track on her sixth album, Short n’ Sweet, released today (August 23).
After a warning advising viewers that the following contains “explicit content and depicts graphic violence,” the music video sees the two former Disney Channel stars alternate strangling, axing and shooting each other. The video is inspired by Death Becomes Her, a 1992 film starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn.
With the lyrics, “Oh, I leave quite an impression / Five feet to be exact / You’re wonderin’ why half his clothes went missin’ / My body’s where they’re at / Now I’m gone, but you’re still layin’ / Next to me, one degree of separation,” Carpenter, 25, sings about finding out her ex (played by Halloween actor Rohan Campbell) is back together with his former partner (Ortega).
“I heard you’re back together and if that’s true / You’ll just have to taste me when he’s kissin’ you / If you want forever, I bet you do / Just know you’ll taste me too,” she sings.
Just before the video ends, Ortega is seen kissing her boyfriend, who, mid-kiss, turns into Carpenter. When Ortega opens her eyes and sees Carpenter, she grabs a chainsaw and pierces the singer in the abdomen. However, after Carpenter’s bloodied body falls into the pool, she turns back into Ortega’s boyfriend.
The final scene shows the two bonding at the boyfriend’s funeral as they walk away hilariously comparing notes on him.
“I don’t know how you put with [him],” Ortega questions recalling that he was “very insecure.” Carpenter adds: “Very clingy, lots of trauma.”
Carpenter’s new 10-track album, Short n’ Sweet, which is out now, is “fun and flirty, with a frothy hook and bitter little kick,” Helen Brown declared in her four-star review for The Independent.
Its release comes months after she dropped its two wildly successful lead singles “Espresso” and “Please Please Please.”
During a recent appearance on Apple Music’s radio show, The Zane Lowe Show, Carpenter explained the album’s title.
“I called it Short n’ Sweet for multiple reasons. It was not because I’m vertically challenged,” she said. “I thought about some of these relationships and how some of them were the shortest I’ve ever had, and they affected me the most.”
Carpenter is rumored to have dated several fellow celebrities over the years, including her Tall Girl co-star Griffin Gluck, Good Luck Charlie alum Bradley Steven Perry, and singer Shawn Mendes.
She was most recently linked to Saltburn star Barry Keoghan, whom she is believed to have started dating in December 2023. Fans have begun to speculate that the two recently split.
On September 23, Carpenter will embark on a 29-date North American tour in support of the album.
She will start in Columbus, Ohio, before making stops in other major cities, including Boston, Massachusetts; Raleigh, North Carolina; Tampa, Florida; and San Diego, California. She will wrap up the tour on November 15 in Los Angeles, California.
