When Sabrina Carpenter set out on tour behind her massive 2024 breakout Short n' Sweet , she was supported on the first leg by the Ghanaian-American pop auteur Amaarae . For anyone vaguely familiar with both artists, it was a strange pairing on the surface — even Amaarae herself didn't quite get it at first. "I was like, 'What the hell do Sabrina Carpenter know about some motherf***ing Amaarae?' " the singer told Rolling Stone in June. But the connection isn't too difficult to trace for anyone who has intently navigated the romantic misadventures of both catalogs: "She's a freak just like me," Amaarae eventually explained, "it's just a different kind of expression."

Amaarae sees confidence as the overlap. Her music is tenebrous and innovative where Carpenter's is ebullient and t

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